When I think of the word "balance" instantly the image of a scale comes to mind...equally weighted objects, one item against the next.  The obvious frustration this image can bring as balance of this sort with regard to family, friends, time, work or money is just not possible.  There is no such thing as equality in time, money or relationships since at any moment one will always outweigh all the others.

While there is no such thing as true equality I have found that balance can and does exist.  It all depends on perspective.  You see, balance can simply be defined as the power or ability to decide an outcome by throwing one's strength, influence, support, or the like, to one side or the other. 

Isn't that what we're truly looking for when we look for balance?  We're looking for positive outcomes for the needs at hand.  To put everything on a scale and hope for 50-50 overwhelms and discourages us because we know it can't happen.  But to see the scale through a new light and understand that yes, we can meet the needs at hand, gives us hope. 

Read the definition again ~ we have the ability to decide outcomes.  We can!  It doesn't say $50 here and $50 there.  It doesn't say 1 hour here, 1 hour there.  It simply says we have the ability to decide outcomes. 

The truth lies in this; find where you need to put your power at any given moment.  Today it may be the client desperate to sell his or her home.  It may be your child that needs an extra 10 minutes.  It could be both in one day.  A client can get 2 hours and your child 10 minutes and yet in the course of that time you've decided outcomes!  That's the key.

But it can't be done lightly.  The only way you can meet the need at hand is to throw your strength, influence and support into the need.  THROW.  It's an action word.

The Holiday Season gives us the greatest opportunity to find balance.  It does so because the Holiday Season causes us to focus on people, whether it be family, friend or stranger.  It also can be a season of great stress if we don't understand true balance. 

Marked by worry over finances we can truly miss every opportunity to decide outcomes.  No, it isn't greed for our own want that becomes our obstacle.  It is the great inability to give to everyone everything they want or need.  This includes the lonely old lady down the street and the homeless man sleeping on a park bench.  We get overwhelmed and we miss opportunity.

We get caught up in dividing.  Dividing time and money.  How much time for work, relationships & play?  How much money for gifts, charity, business & entertaining? 

We can't divide, we need to multiply.  Multiply our efforts, our strength, our influence, our support.  Don't divide your time, multiply it by making it count.  Don't divide your money, multiply it by putting it where it needs to go.  If you look through the right set of eyes, if you understand what true balance really is, you will know where it needs to go. 

Holiday Balance isn't about juggling family, work & finances.  And it's not even about priorities.  It's about people, and it's about you.  It's about the power and ability you have to decide an outcome...for someone...somewhere...somehow.