Living a balanced life

We often are told to have a "balanced life." What does that really mean? I think an individual's "balance" is a highly personal idea. One person might be happy spending 80% of their time working and 20% of their time on their personal life. For another person, it might be 40% work and 60% personal life. The work and personal mega-categories can be broken down into further sub-categories, for example: job, fixing the house, volunteer work, exercise, blogging, family, friends, cultural events, etc.

The main point is that we strive for diversified lifestyle (sounds like a stock portfolio!) so that if one part of our life fails, we don't collapse completely. For instance, if you focus all your energy on work and fail to get a much-desired promotion, you'd be crushed. Or, if you focus on enjoying your personal life and suddenly become disabled, you wouldn't have anything to fall back on.

Let me play philosopher. What are the essential parts of a balanced life?

1) Something you do (independent of other people) that makes you supremely happy, so happy that you get a rush of good feeling. Examples: a favorite sport, hiking, traveling, volunteering to build houses, painting, reading, movie watching, writing poetry.

2) A network of friends you can count on, to varying degrees. This network consists of three main groups. First, there is your boss (or employees) and colleagues at work. I typically eat lunch with fellow science graduate students. Second, there is your local social group. For me, these are the people I live with. Third, there is your family and long-distance friends. I think one should have meaningful relationships with all of these groups. Then out of everyone, there should be a few people who can be relied on in dire emergencies (whether emotional, medical, academic, etc.) I like talking to my peers for the short-term perspective (i.e. getting through grad school) and talking to older people for the long-term perspective (i.e. finding an ideal career).

3) Personal growth. You don't want to stagnate. For some people, life effectively ends after they finish their formal education. They're the same person at 45 as they were at 25. The main ways to achieve personal growth are intellectually challenging work and cultivating new personal relationships or improving existing ones. If you're a professor, that might mean switching research fields. If you have a family, that might mean joining an activity club to meet new people. Friends can be a good influence. If you surround yourself with creative go-getters, you'll obtain inspiration to try new things. A smaller way to influence personal growth is to read different books, listening to new genres of music, travel, etc. I don't consider these activities as effective for personal growth because they're more passive.

Of these three essential ingredients, personal growth is probably the most difficult because it requires constant work.

The value of living a balanced life can be difficult to appreciate until you experience your first "life failure." I think most people have to learn the hard way. There are also some people who never even try to construct a balanced life. I also notice that many young people get bogged down in details (living up to parental expectations, pleasing their boyfriend/girlfriend, getting A's, brushing up their resume, figuring out how to get ahead in the job market, etc.) rather than trying to develop their identity and understand what they're good at and what makes them happy. The important thing is to lay a solid foundation. Once you know where you're going, the details are easy to pick up. I fell into this trap myself. In my last two years of college, I became so worried about doing well in school that I stopped seeing my friends and never thought about what kind of physics research I wanted to pursue in graduate school. The emphasis on the GPA for graduate/professional school admissions and entry-level jobs ruins the college experience for a lot of people. Students spend all their time hoop jumping instead of exploring.

Our society might be happier and more productive if life philosophy were incorporated into basic education.