Application Story: Bringing Harmony into Our Lives Part II

Let’s continue with the search for bringing harmony into our lives. As I said before Part II of this article will provide us with more practical ideas to start thinking what could we do to understand what matter the most for us, and how we can balanced those things. The end goal of this is to create an open forum and generate ideas so that we can learn from each other about “Life Balance or Life Harmony”.

Here is the way I picture Life Harmony after reading and interiorizing things with my personal and professional experience:

Over the course of our lives, imagine that you receive Six balls to juggle in life, these are fundamental for your success. These 6 balls are in fact part of your Life Harmony: Family, Health, Work, Time, Money, and Wisdom.    Now let’s take a moment to think how you will juggle these balls and how you will balance all of them. To help us with this, let’s find some meanings…

Why Family Matters? I believe that family is the center of our human beings, is the fundamental principle of personal realization and happiness. With family we regenerate and renew our society expanding our roots. The most important thing in this context is to have a healthy family making each member or generation better when contributing in the society. Forming great children who are the future and who will represent what comes next in generations soon to be.

Why Health Matters? It matters for a very simple reason, we would like to live long enough to enjoy all pleasures in live. We enjoy life better when we have better health, and the simple activities that we normally do is something we shouldn’t take for granted. I will say life can only be enjoyable because the opportunities we size and enjoy. There are many opportunities that are only opened to us if we have good health. We all want to be free from pain, and any health problem, well the only way to be free is to live to the fullest, having good health for sure.

Why Work Matters? Work is far more than having a job or a career, because it is part of the quality of life we would like to achieve. It is how we find the way to support ourselves and families. It is also the way we can express feelings like love, how we contribute and how we nurture what we want to be and who we want to be.

Why Time Matters?  Time implies value in many ways. Time matters because it is limited and goes by so quickly. We can size each moment but we cannot slow down time. We can live each moment, appreciate it and savor it. We can make sure we do not squander it or waste it. That is the best we can do. The worst we can do is paying no attention to time, because when it’s gone, it’s gone. In fact, the way we spend our time reflects our ability to focus on and achieve what we would like to achieve. It is our ability that counts the most to define what matter the most to us, and how we would like to spend the time in our lives.

Why Money Matters? As time, money is also related to value. It is related to our relationship with work, family, health and time. Money is a manifestation of the value we place on the things money can buy. My question is then how much money buys harmony, and happiness? A wide group of research suggests the number is approximately forty thousand dollars a year. Daniel Gilbert, professor of psychology at Harvard University, says once you have enough money to meet basic needs – food, shelter, but not necessarily cable —incremental increases have little effect on your happiness.

Why Wisdom Matters? I will say this is part of lives dynamic. The knowledge we have or the wisdom we acquire will give us the capacity to balance our lives day in and day out. Wisdom gives us the opportunity to size our goals, priorities, and decisions moments that will test our integrity and expand our awareness in facing challenging situations. As time, life moves on, and things happen as a consequence of the decisions or actions we take depending on our wisdom or knowledge. So having the judgment to make good decisions in our daily lives is what empowers us with the ongoing awareness to measure family, work, money, time and health looking for a satisfying balance. I will say wisdom like in the biblical times; it is an empowering thing that will help us navigate with intelligence in the search of that balance.

Finally, after sharing with you my idea of these “Six Balls” we need to juggle to explore Life Harmony, I will say that the core of all this idea is to really understand what matters the most for each of us. But remember…that is something different for each individual, and you need to find what works best for you.   In my opinion, the challenge for all of us is to find a way, a tool or a best practice that will fit our own needs and aspirations. It is a matter of learning how to be successful when juggling the balls: Family, Health, Work, Time, Money, and Wisdom.

Here is a piece of advice:
Keep in mind that “Work and Money “are balls that can bounce-back and they are rubber balls, so they come and go. Do not be afraid or intimidated by them.

On the other hand, “Family, Health, Time, and Wisdom” are glass balls that can be broken any time. Those will be hard to put back together if we are lacking of the understanding on how they are part of life priorities. They are flexible but you have to be more careful.

In summary, as I said before, we live in the now, not in the past or in the future; and with the idea to bring harmony into our lives more frequent, remember to find the best approach to juggle your six balls. Just as your car runs more smoothly and requires less energy to go faster and farther when the wheels are in perfect alignment, you will perform better when your thoughts, feeling, emotions, goals and values are in balance.

Last but not least, here is a great book to read: the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey. In his book he shares a step-by-step pathway for living with fairness, integrity, service and human dignity principles that give us the security to adapt to change and the wisdom and power to take advantage of the opportunities that change creates. Originally published in 1989, the timeless seven habits remain relevant even as the challenges have become more difficult.

Enjoy!