The See-Saw Of A Mumpreneurs Life

Do you remember see-saws?

Not the metal ones they have these days designed to stop injuries (and stop most of the fun as well if you ask me) but the old wooden ones. The ones where you went up as high as the sky, and if you came down hard enough you’d bump right up out of your seat.

There would always be that split second on the way up and again on the way down when you and your partner in crime would be in complete balance.

There’s a lot of talk these days about living a balanced life. We need to work hard, play hard, spend time with the children, time with your partner, give back to the community, continue to grow as a person, keep fit and healthy – all in a balanced day’s ‘work’.

There are certainly slices of time where you may be able to live your life in complete balance, but life is more like a wooden see-saw. There will be times when work takes over, and times when family takes center stage. There’s time when fitness becomes all consuming and times when it falls by the wayside.

Keeping a balance in your life is not about making sure everything fits in to every day, or even every week. A balanced life should be weighed on a yearly scale. It’s about you understanding what 3 or 4 aspects are really important to you right now and focusing on those areas, while still being mindful of opportunities for other areas to get a turn when it’s appropriate.

As you got a little older and a little bit more daring you probably discovered other ways of playing on the see-saw. One of my favourites was to walk across from one side to the other. Getting over the middle was always the tricky bit as down became up and up became down. And if you were really clever you could stand straddled over the middle with both sides up in the air!

Striving for a balance like this is a great goal, but not when it’s causing you more stress to achieve the balance than it would be if you were just sitting back on the see-saw going up, and going down.

There are times when a work deadline is more important than attending a charity event. Your daughter’s birthday will be more important than getting your accounts up to date. And training for a half-marathon may be more important this month than having coffee with a friend.

Life is about the ups and downs, with the occasional moments of complete balance, and most of all, about having fun while your riding it.