Eight Spinning Plates
(The Dismissal of Artificial Goals)
“Live a balanced life. Learn some and think some, and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.”
— Robert Fulghum, American Author
Contemporary Culture, with its politically correct and dogmatic standards and expectations for every aspect of life, has rendered a classic in the demand for “Work-Life Balance.” (Often couched as yet one more artificial requirement for executive contracts…) Any woman executive taking office in this decade is instantly assailed by reporters questioning how she will be able to discharge her duties while maintaining a strict “work/life balance…”
Pause for a moment and recall that the question never came up when interviewing male executives in previous decades…
We reject the premise of “Work/Life Balance.” It’s not either/or, on/off, work/play — we’re not merely two channel people.
We suggest the entire idea that Life can be “balanced” (or needs to be) may be erroneous. Play is so much more than “not working…” And Work need not be seen as something to be avoided at all costs, some kind of mindless drudgery.
When people talk about a “balanced life” they are setting up an unrealistic, small bore, and mindlessly controlling template which reduces the enormously complex and nuanced “Game of Life” down to a “binary prison.”
To our view, people are confusing “balance” with “forced equilibrium.” Isn’t what we’re seeking more like a sense of completeness in life?
So a key lesson may be: “Beware of Know-It-Alls, first creating, then selling you a problem…”
What if life more accurately consists of a series of interconnected domains, represented as a set of spinning plates: Self, Family, Business-Community, Nation(s)/Tribes, Living Things, The Environment, Aesthetics/Spirit and the Infinite…
We each fashion our life out of these components. Each in our own way, each with its own special balance — some large; some small. The trick is to continue forward while keeping them all spinning — or not…
All parts are valid, and all are different. There’s no correct way to assemble and spin your life — that’s up to you.
We present several alternative ways of framing the discussion:
Doctors without Borders:
Full-time medical professionals, leaving their regular jobs, jumping on planes, traveling at their own expense to faraway places where medical care is scarce. There, they camp out, and work ridiculous hours performing surgeries, eye exams, bone setting, diagnoses, treatments and therapy — for no money.
Then, fully spent, they travel home and resume their regularly scheduled program… Balance? Hardly! Equilibrium? Nope! But adventure and completeness? Yeah!
Habitat for Humanity:
It’s a game. It’s a blessing. How do you choose to play? Leave your regularly scheduled program, jump on a plane, and go to where people need some houses. Work like crazy building homes for strangers, with strangers, then head home exhausted, with sawdust in your jeans.
Is it work? Or is it play? Who cares? It doesn’t matter! Happiness is up to you to define and up to you to achieve. In the end, we hold with Fulghum… Make your life fulsome!
Keep the plates spinning, and let “balance” take care of itself…
Applications
1. For You
As the Captain of your voyage, it’s up to you to set the standards. What do you want? What will make you happy? Studying Gorillas? Right! Pack your bags! Writing a symphony? Grab your pencil and some empty score sheets, find a quiet place and begin! Or maybe you’ll write on your breaks as a Barista… Up to you! Then there’s the “Standard Model…” Find a partner, marry, have kids, work, and struggle to pay for the house and get the kids through school… Whatever you choose, reject all outside standards of expectation and write your own program!
2. At Home
Maybe your life partner is a really elegant house cat who reads Camus. Better study and keep up! Of course, a human household requires a certain amount of on-the-go negotiation to determine a shared standard of happiness. Then things change. So don’t be afraid to talk every so often about how everyone’s doing. Is it still working? Or are some alterations in order?
3. At Work
Here’s where the pressure of corporate goals commonly intersect with personal needs and desires. The media, the culture, business and national identity seem to perennially collide at work. But keep in mind, YOU are still in charge of your personal piece of this pie. So if it’s not working perfectly enough, go talk to your boss, your colleagues, your team and see where there’s some give. If you never ask, you’ll never know.
Work some. Play some.
Fulghum. Fulsome.
Screw the balance.
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