“Some people live where they work. Others just visit.”
~ Seanan McGuire
“What are you doing for others?”
~ Martin Luther King Jr.
“Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.”
~ Mohammed Ali
“Life is a balanced system of learning and evolution. Whether pleasure or pain; every situation in your life serves a purpose. It is up to us to recognize what that purpose could be.”
~ Steve Maraboli
“Carve your name on hearts, not tombstones. A legacy is etched into the minds of others and the stories they share about you.”
~ Shannon L. Alder
I have FINALLY come to understand that talks should be about life, work and balance. In that order! I’m actually quite offended by the current, trendy, excessive talk about ‘work/life balance’. I was criticized day in and day out that I didn’t quite get the concept! I’ve had the good fortune to realize I was wrongly criticized and I did balance life in ways that far exceed the illusive dream expected of us. I am at the end of my career and I now have the privilege to indulge in semi-retirement. Catherine Pulsifer says “Retirement, a time to do what you want to do, when you want to do it, where you want to do it, and, how you want to do it.” A thoughtful time to mindfully find balance.
I spent years trying to capture the elusive work/life balance. I could be counted on to do 150 percent at any job I took. And I darted about like most women trying to take care of home, family and everyone else!
Rather than continue to criticize myself for years of living in a type A personality I choose, now, to embrace the experience and recognize the legacy I am so grateful to leave behind. And to my peers, I suggest that NOW is the time for those of us rich in knowledge and experience to drop our ego’s and find our kindness and become empowering, engaging and enabling mentors. “That is your legacy on this Earth when you leave this Earth: how many hearts you touched” as said by Patti Davis.
Let’s mentor the essential practices and gifts of a life in balance. Let’s understand and accept that everyone has different challenges and that everyone needs the freedom to handle those challenges in ways that allows us all to touch our own hearts and model the values of service and well-being.
* Please indulge me and my inability to sum up my thoughts and direction for this blog in just two quotes.
Written by Deborah Lavender, BMG Senior Consultant
Photo Copyright : Tom De Spiegelaere, 123RF
