Finding Balance: March 18, 2004

I carry this slightly battered card around with me everywhere, pasted to the inside of my BlackBerry 6210 holster. (This card is part of a set of Meditation Cards published by Running Press, featuring the simple, delightful artwork ofRoxana Villa. Each card represents a different virtue or aspect of self-actualization.)

This card is important to me because it is my physical reminder that I must not let my life tip over into imbalance, focusing on one or two areas to the detriment of other, more neglected but nevertheless still important, areas. My continued feelings of weariness over the past three weeks are a signal that my life is out of whack—yet again *sigh*

I'm obviously going to have to think about this a little more deeply, but it seems to me that, ever since I installed my new, more powerful, home computer, I have been on the Internet pretty much the whole evening, every evening. I'm going through the same phase now that I did ten years ago, when I was among the first people in the province to set up my home dial-up access to the World Wide Web. I can remember that level of excitment, that kept me online for hour after hour. Well, I am getting that same feeling, that same charge of excited interest, over blogs and wikis, social networking software, syndication and aggregators. wireless networking and devices, that I got from the Web itself a decade ago

The problem, of course, is that the time put into these eager pursuits must be taken from somewhere. In my case, it has been taken from my self-care activities (going to the gym, shopping for food, cooking for myself, cleaning the apartment, etc.) as well as from my IRL (IRL=In Real Life, as opposed to online) social life.

So I've decided to cut back on my online explorations and adventures for a while. How long? Can't say. The time I free up will be put towards all the things that I have neglected lately: myself, my home, and my friends and family. And the extra energy I get from taking better care of myself (e.g. hauling my ass to the gym on a more regular basis) can go directly into my work.

And no, I won't be as ridiculously well-informed and "plugged-in" as to what's happening. And you know what? I don't care...no one person can keep up with the tsunami of online information anymore anyways.. I have to do what's best for me, and in the end, if I were to burn out, it wouldn't serve anybody's purpose, least of all my own.