Bringing Balance to the Force
For the new year, I wanted to share my thoughts around living a balanced life with the forces around me [ 1 ] . I’m using “force” as a generic term for a category of activity, as this is a personal version of the work-life balance mantra commonly heard in the workplace. But there are many flaws in that mantra; why should work come before life, and shouldn’t life encompass work anyway? Hence, force balance , a framework, with inspiration from Star Wars and Jim Collins [ 2 ] , that answers two major questions, what is the force and how does one balance it? The Force A college professor once said “the secret to happiness in college consists of studying, socializing, and getting enough sleep. The problem is you can only pick two, so choose wisely.” In a similar vein, the force is made up of three major forces: Health, Social, and Contribution . The Health Force determines your physical and mental well-being: sleep, exercise, eating. The Social Force governs your relations...