Why Balanced Student Life is a Lie and How You Can Really Live Life to the Fullest While Acing School

From the very start of the year students are told to live a balanced life; "Make sure to balance school work with extra-curriculars" or "make sure to balance school with eating healthy and exercise." When students fall down, and do all-nighters, and focus too much on school or focus too much on partying, and having fun, people shake their heads and tell students they are not balanced. Work-life balance and school-life balance are synonymous. But is balance really the answer? After this philosophy was pushed on me, I discovered there is much wrong with it. Instead of balance I suggest cohesion and integration.

This is life. Not student life, but life, in which you are a student, but also a friend, a young 20-something year old, or a mature adult with a family. I argue, that you do not balance - choosing which activity to toggle between, maybe putting more emphasis on one than the other, constantly assessing and figuring out this dance, this juggle, this "balance." I suggest you do it all, all the time, at the same time. If you hang out with friends on a Friday night, when you want to class on the morning, is that balance? No, you did both on the Friday. You went to class, and you saw your friends. That is living a healthy, well-rounded life. Balance could look like skipping the Friday morning class because you wanted to stay out light on Thursday, knowing you will catch up on the material Sunday night. No, I do not think balance is good.

Think about a scale with two plates, and you have to make sure one does not tip over. Constantly, reviewing them, adjusting. Even if the plates are at 50-50, that is hard work, using your abs to align them physically, your focus, your mind, to make sure they are even and do not tip over.

I propose we throw out the scale. We do it all. One by one, at the same time. Your focus and stress is not on decided what to do and how much, it is about aligning your actions with your priorities. Once you make the decision, you have clear vision and follow through. Swimming every morning? You decided fitness is important and you follow through. Going to class? You enjoy it and want good marks and decide to go to class.

Balance suggests that things are in conflict, and need to be managed. However, if you know your goals and priorities, then it is about enacting them and focusing on doing that. You can have it all. There is no balance. There is holistic completion of every task that is important to you. Really, it is about doing the inner work so you know what is important and what your expectations are beforehand. For example, you decided to study the night before a test and your friend invites you for an impromptu hang, you say no, because you need to focus on the test. This mark is important to you. Or you say yes, because you do not care about the test's mark. There is not "right" answer, as long as it aligns with you, and makes you your best, happiest self. Notice how balance is never had in the same conversation as happy? Mostly, productive, right? I remember being told that taking a break with friends helps your academic performance. What about, it is just fun and good for your soul?

Also, I said you can have it all, and I mean it, but that does not mean it will be equal every day. Once in a while, you may not be as social because you are working on a paper. But that is not balance, sacrificing one night of fun for your paper. That is simply living life in a way that is aligned with the present moment, and what makes you full, and being aware of it. At the time, you do not want to hang with your friends, you want to focus on that paper. If everyday you stop seeing friends for a paper, that is where it might be worrisome. Most importantly, if you are in teh library working on the paper and you wished you were with your friends, then that is not right. That is not being unbalanced, but eliminating things you love.

So, final words of wisdom*. It is not either or. Do all of it. Once in a while, not doing something that you love or that is important will not hurt you, but over time? If it becomes a habit? Then it is a problem. Because we only live in the moment, so working on physics homework everyday that makes you miserable, one day you will regret not enjoying that swim, not enjoying hanging out with that cool friend.

Because the present matters too.

Stay Happy. Stay Healthy. Stay Ambitious.

R.H.

• *I do not presume to be wise, but I do the best I can with what I know and have experienced :)