Moderation...letting go of seeking perfection.
In my work with leaders across multiple organisations, a common talking point that comes up concerns our 'busyness', which we seem to wear with a sense of perverse pride.
On the one hand, we want to be seen as worthy by others - our friends and families, and obviously our employers. We fear being seen as not contributing enough. But what is enough?
And then we complain of not having 'balance'. At not being able to fit into our lives the many things that are important to us. Work seems to rule, but what about time for our family and friends, our communities and most importantly (from my perspective), our own needs.
In the past, I've been guilty of doing things to extreme, which by default, means that other important things suffer. You can't have your cake and eat it too.
And yet, I'm encouraged in that the leaders who I see as being the most effective, are actually the ones who don't do things to extreme. They understand what moderation means and have adopted a discerning view about where, when and why they will give anything even approaching 100% to anything, and consequently feel that they also have time for the other essential things in their lives.
This article explores that theme and I hope it gives you permission to adopt a mind-set of moderation.