Quotes About Balance

It's easier to keep up than to catch up...

Technology is a good servant but a bad master.

Remind the Obliger that saying no allows him or her to say yes to work that's more important

Secret of Adulthood: Make sure the things we do to make ourselves feel better don't make us feel worse.

There's no right or best way to create a better life. Nevertheless, while each of us may define and achieve outer order in different ways, it's clear that for most people, outer order does indeed contribute to inner calm.

by mindfully shaping our habits, we can harness the power of mindlessness as a sweeping force for serenity, energy, and growth.

Eventually, I decided to count my daily walk or cross-country ski as a treat—my time for myself in a day otherwise filled with responsibilities. Somehow, that made it much easier to make it a priority.

A feeling of control is a very important aspect of happiness. People who feel in control of their lives, which is powerfully bolstered by feeling in control of time, are more likely to feel happy.

To be happy, I need to think about feeling good, feeling bad, and feeling right, in an atmosphere of growth.

Underreact to a problem

It's a Secret of Adulthood: Make sure the things we do to make ourselves feel better don't make us feel worse.

Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

Feeling right" is about living the life that's right for you—in occupation, location, marital status, and so on. It's also about virtue: doing your duty, living up to the expectations you set for yourself. For some people, "feeling right" can also include less elevated considerations: achieving a certain job status or material standard of living.

Feeling right" is about living the life that's right for you—in occupation, location, marital status, and so on. It's also about virtue: doing your duty

Upholders-tipped-to-Obligers have a commitment to both inner and outer expectations, for them, the pull of outer expectations is very hard to ignore; UPHOLDER/Obligers must be sure to articulate inner expectations and to create boundaries to protect inner expectations from outer interference.

Of course, it's also true that some people thrive in an atmosphere of disarray. For them, an uncluttered environment doesn't help—or may even stifle—their productivity, their creativity, and their peace of mind.

Upholder, I see its dark side, too

You can choose what you do; you can't choose what you like to do. You can do anything you want, but you can't do everything you want.

getting one extra hour of sleep each night would do more for a person's daily happiness than getting a $60,000 raise.

Money. It's a good servant but a bad master.

As Oscar Wilde wrote, with his characteristic brand of thought-provoking overstatement, "When we are happy we are always good, but when we are good we are not always happy." Now

the Strategy of Pairing, I couple two activities, one that I need or want to do, and one that I don't particularly want to do, to get myself to accomplish them both. It's not a reward, it's not a treat, it's just a pairing.

False Choice Loophole: This is the loophole-seeking strategy I most often invoke. I pose two activities in opposition, as though I have to make an either/or decision, when in fact, the two aren't necessarily in conflict.

leisure must be entered on the schedule as its own activity; it's not something I get only when I have nothing else to do. Because I always have something else to do.