"Balance is Everything"

There was a game I spent many hours playing in my past. The game had a splash page while it was loading and the words "Balance is Everything" was written there. It was likely the game designer was referring to keeping the game balanced in terms of having the two teams be designed so they were fairly equal and fair. In that way, the game wouldn't provide an advantage for one team or another. The characters, new characters, changes to the map, distance between team starting points, distances to shops, and countless other things would have to be considered to maintain a balance close to equal so the game could remain fair and fun. Anything out of balance can cause issues. It could cause people to prefer one team over another. It could cause frustrations if one team generally wins more often over the other. It could cause people to abandon the game and may never go back to it.

As a young person at the time, little did I know how those words "Balance is Everything" can easily be applied in virtually every facet of life. Some examples might be balancing time between friends and family, balancing spending money and saving money, finding that work life balance, balancing thinking and taking action, enjoying delicious foods and your health, exercising and resting, and others. The list can be very expansive.

We can take one example and go a little deeper and see how balance comes into play in greater detail. Let's go with a new example. Let us compare a person motivating themself and recognizing their own accomplishments. If a person is consistently pushing themself to do more or do better, higher heights can likely be accomplished. New records, new standards, and a great deal of things can be achieved. It could be a physical accomplishment, it can be the studies of which may result in the highest test grades, it could be a work promotion that a person is striving for. Whatever the person is pushing towards, it can be a really positive result. This can be really wonderful; however, one might need to keep tabs on their own mental health. If working on this goal lasts for too long or creates too much stress, it can cause burn out or result in other unhealthy outcomes. It might be okay to sometimes to take a break, examine & enjoy the progress that has already been made. Keeping a good balance could be incredibly important and may potentially dictate whether or not a person ultimately succeeds or is able to reap the rewards of their labor later on. At the same time, if a person rests on their laurels for too long, it could limit themselves from potential other accomplishments if they wanted to. A young adult who may have won a spelling bee in grade school who decided nothing else needed to be accomplished could be unnecessarily closing the door on a lot of opportunity. That is kind of an extreme example. Balance can be applied to some practical things, some obvious, and some that are much more subtle.

When it comes to foods, we may all have our own favorites. A large part of the population can relate to having a sweet tooth. Unfortunately, desserts and other sweets in excess isn't too healthy. Balancing what we eat with some very delicious foods and also intaking other foods with greater health benefits is quite important. The repercussions of eating purely unhealthy foods can be seen or felt in a fairly short period of time. Completely denying yourself of some of the foods you may love can possibly create some other issues. So, figuring out a good balance for your long-term plan might be the route to go.

Who knew that those words "Balance is Everything" can touch a person's life in so many different ways and at so many different levels. It is used to keep things fair within a game but also used in life. The pursuit of this delicate balance at different areas and different stages of a person's life can be a large part of how our journey unfolds.