Balance...

"Better learn balance. Balance is key. Balance good, karate good. Everything good. Balance bad, better pack up, go home. Understand? "
- Miyagi (Pat Morita), "The Karate Kid"

Weight :157

I've never snowboarded. I have skiied... used to be pretty good in fact. But moving to places with warm weather and/or a severe lack of hills, combined with numberous better things to spend my time and money on... and I'm sure I'd be more than just a little rusty.

But in order to successfully ski or snowboard, you have to marry two simple components. One of them is inevitable and unavoidable... gravity. No matter what you do, you can not escape it, can not change it. The other component is the one that takes work, practice, committment to perfect... balance. The gravity is constant. Never changing. The balance is constantly changing with turns, terrain, and terror.

Thus is life. Thus is my life and what I am trying to do. One thing is constant: Time. I can't stop it. I can't speed it up or slow it down. And I'm trying to find the balance of family, work, health, and athleticism (and probably some other stuff)... and that is constantly changing.

This week I started a new shift at work. Instead of working from 4 in the afternoon until 12:30 in the morning, I am now working a much more 'normal' shift of 9:30 am to 6 pm. This has flipped things like a whore on dollar night.

In terms of family - I get a lot more family time, and I love it! We're eating family dinners together, and are slowly making it 'ritual' to bowl a couple of games on the Wii together (my 5 year old daughter has gotten very good, and regularly beats my wife and me). The only down side is that I had forgotten what a good cook my wife is, and while she has been making healthy dinners, I have been eating 2-3 servings. This is a little counterproductive on the 'weight maintenance' goal.

In terms of health - I am getting at least 2 more hours of sleep a night, if not 3. I feel SO much more alert, especially in the morning. This has got to be better for me, right?

In terms of athleticism - with my old schedule, it was easy to work out. While the wife and kid were at school, I could work out at me leisure. Whatever time I want was good, and I could be out for 30 minutes or 3 hours. Didn't matter.

Now? I've been running early in the morning while my wife gets ready for work (before my daughter wakes up). This is good, but limited to about a 3-4 mile run unless I want to set another alarm to wake up before anyone else. Evening workouts are non-existant so far, because that is time I could be spending with my family... it adds a bit of guilt to the mix.

Granted, for now, it's not a big issue. I am not training for something so huge that I need long workouts in the middle of the week. But if I choose to do a marathon again... there will be sacrifices.

I mean, there's ALWAYS sacrifices. But sometimes it's the people you love who have to sacrifice too. I know of people who never find this balance between their wants and desires and their family's willingness to sacrifice. This can be horrible for family life, and even break it apart. It something that should be considered, and discussed, before taking on new bold challenges.

However, if your wants/desires/and goals are reasonable... and you discuss it openly and passionately... your family will support you. You just have to prepare for the change in balance. If you're careening down a snow-covered hill, you see what's ahead of you. You prepare for turns, dips, and bumps, and even keep aware of something changing at the very last second. You look ahead to the upcoming changes in balance. And with enough preperation and anticipation, you do not fall.