Building off of last week’s post, Burnout, I want to talk more about balance.

Many people have shared this advice, but it is worth saying again:

1/3 of your life is dedicated to sleep (so buy a good mattress)

1/3 is for running your household and fun

1/3 is for work (so choose something you enjoy)

All of these cycles support and sustain one another so that you can continue to do whatever it is that you do. You need money to have fun and shelter and food, so you work. You need to play so that you can blow off steam and stay healthy, and you need to rest so that you can do it all over again next week.

Life is a zero-sum game, meaning that all of us only have 168 hours per week. Nobody gets more time.

Imbalance begins when we start negotiating wildly out of those 1/3 ratios.

Perhaps you want more money, so you work more hours. But where do you take the time from? From time with your family, running your household, fun, or sleep?

For me, while I was going to graduate school and working full time, while also trying to maintain my household (marriage and a huge yard) and fun (climbing), sleep was usually the category that would suffer. I was lucky to get 5-6 hours of sleep a night.

This imbalance created a delayed effect on my system. Sure, it seemed like I got a ton of shit done during those years, but because of the lack of sleep my immune system was very weak. I got sick a lot, especially around finals or other stressful events. While I was sick, I was really sick. I couldn’t do anything. My body was naturally seeking balance, trying to reset and find its equilibrium.

I realized that I couldn’t take care of others—wife, home, world—until after I had taken care of myself. That meant moving around, getting exercise, and having fun, which is why I returned to my climbing practice.

There is always a pattern with imbalance. You enjoy something, so you do it more. The question is: at what point do you begin to experience diminishing returns? At what point do you max out your enjoyment of an activity? If you tip too far toward just having fun, it can start interfering with other aspects of your life just as too much work can.

These are tough questions to answer, because we can’t always see the answer in real time; sometimes there is a delayed effect.

This isn’t something I can address in a single post, and, in fact, I am still working to fine tune it in my own life. What I do know is that I need to get enough sleep or I get sick. I need to work to support my family and lifestyle. And I need to have fun, so that I can release the stress and anxiety of life, and I do this the best way I know how: rock climbing.

Think about your own balance, and what categories you might be over emphasizing, and what areas you might be neglecting. This is your life and health we’re talking about, after all.