Where Can I Put This Pile of Stress?

Striving for balance, Janine contrasts two avenues towards achieving success and happiness, summarized by Stephen Covey as the modern 'Personality Ethic' and the time honored 'Character Ethic.' The first invests energy in manicuring the public image to the detriment of other relationships and areas of life. The second urges one to embody virtues universally. Self-examination reveals the inefficiency of the first and inspires her to integrate her values with equipoise. - Editor

If you are a moderate person, click the “X” box at the top of your screen, and save a few more minutes of your well-managed time, not reading my article. You don't really need it. If however, you are in my boat, navigating the river of “striving-to-learn-healthy-balanced-habits” and finding that the paddling is mostly upstream, then please continue with me.

Have you heard of the book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey? The name is so familiar to me, as well as a few of the concepts, that I feel as if I have read it, but never have. This week I picked it up and some of the ideas inspired me and encouraged new thought on the subjects of balance and moderation, and the process of achieving deep success in my life.

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Feeling Complete

Janine draws on practical examples and passages from the Word to illustrate her quest for peacefulness. She paints an all-to-familiar picture of the obsessive energy of trying to get everything right before the peace and enjoyment in life can be experienced. Is she trying too hard? Is she not trying hard enough? Janine asks herself, she asks the Lord in His Word and the reader is challenged to look at the same questions.

These days I have a thought lodged in the back of my head that goes like this: “Have I experienced this (fill-in-the-blank) enough to feel totally satisfied?” Or maybe it sounds like: “Have my needs been met enough for me to move on from this and meet other people's needs now?” Let me fill this in with some examples. I am out for a walk and I have a fear that if I don't walk long enough I will feel a little cheated of personal time, so as I walk I think, “Is this far enough yet so that I can let it go? Did I get all the exercise I need so I can move on to something else?” In another example, I am eating a meal and I don't want to stop until I feel totally satisfied. I don't want to overeat either, but I just don't want to leave the table at all hungry, because if I do, my mind will be half distracted by feeling hungry instead of having a feeling of completion about the meal and a willingness to move onto the next thing.

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