A Balanced Life is Oblong, Not a Perfect Circle

I love starting my day in the garden. Today, I learned a valuable principle about balance and living a balanced life from my peach tree. I had a volunteer peach tree start growing in my garden, and as I was looking at it yesterday, I noticed it was out of control, lots of limbs growing everywhere, etc. and now it’s losing its leaves. How? I’ve been taking care of it, and it’s growing beautifully.

I’m doing everything I’m supposed to be doing. I’m doing everything to cause this tree to thrive and bloom. I reached out to a fellow gardener, and he said these words, which sparked this principle, “It’s too much. There’s too much growth there.”

Building Infrastructure to Handle Growth

Building an infrastructure to handle growth is critical.

Sometimes we start pursuing our dreams, goals, and we focus solely on that dream and nothing else. Just like my peach tree is starting to shed its leaves because it has not built the infrastructure it needs. Wow, what a valuable lesson. We always hear pursue your dreams, go forth, nurture and achieve your dream. What I didn’t realize is even growth requires balance.

I have another tree that I planted. I’m taking care of it, doing what I’m supposed to nurturing it and it’s thriving. Even though there have been some pests that have started chewing on the leaves a little bit, it’s thriving. By pruning it, cutting off the branches that it doesn’t need, I’m allowing it to build its infrastructure. The roots and trunk are growing and strengthening able to handle future growth.

I thought I had pruned the peach tree in the front well enough, but I didn’t. It couldn’t handle the growth; it did not have the infrastructure to support all the new growth. All of this growth happened this year. It was amazing how much growth has come on just this year.

Valuable Principle for Balanced Life

Pursue your dreams, go after your goals and do what you can, but do it with balance.

If you don’t, it’s going to throw other things out of whack just like that peach tree and start losing your leaves.

Your leaves could be your family, friends, your own sanity. Are you getting thrown out of balance because you are not taking care of yourself, nurturing and nourishing yourself? Self-care is critical to implement in your life. Sometimes you pursue your dreams, and goals to the point where we start to neglect, not intentionally, your children, friends, and family.

You may disguise as I’m doing it for your children so you can have this or that. You have to have balance, and it’s through balance that you will find the greatest joy and happiness that your life can offer. Lacking balance creates frustration, anger, resentment, and your life is not what you want it to be. It’s not balanced, and in my opinion, balance is more like an elliptical, it doesn’t spin perfectly because life is not perfect.

You Don’t Want Perfect Balance

Growth occurs as you’re a little off balance, but too far off balance, self destruction.

Every time you think that things are starting to spin perfectly I guarantee you, something’s going to throw you off balance. You want to be a little off balance so that you can continue to grow. You push yourself to be better than you currently are. When you are in coasting, everything is perfect mode,