Many of us desire "balance." But how do we know when we have achieved it? I used to measure the time spent working versus hanging or at home, as a barometer. While it's simple to weigh these two, this formula doesn't provide much more than a simple measurement. The real shortfall is that these are merely two aspects of how you can spend your time and energy.
I visualize a mountain range as a way to recognize and to look at multiple aspects of life. Each peak of the range is represented by an important area of my life. The height of each peak is relative to the others and allows me to see where more attention is needed or where there is too much emphasis, at a given moment.
My range is represented by these peaks:
Family
Friends
Career/work
Health
Fun
Money
Service
These do not need to be in order, since it is the height of each peak that matters. While you cannot always control that the height of all peaks be in perfect symmetry, you can be aware of the relativity of each. That awareness is the most important thing. Only then can you make a conscience effort to place more or less emphasis on any peak. Essentially, we can find balance by simply being conscience of maintaining the range.
A good exercise to keep track of balance is to illustrate your range at key moments. What does your range look like?
This picture illustrates where I am at the moment. Work/career is obviously the largest. This makes sense given that I am in the midst of orchestrating a comprehensive and exciting new campaign with MINI. The best part of this exercise is that my lovely and talented daughter Jasper painted this range. So, in working on this together, the exercise itself gave me another opportunity to move "family" up a level. Read more and follow http://www.TheSherpaPath.com