Balance

Balance is the state of achieving equilibrium between two opposing forces, philosophies, or ideals.

Balance is valuable to me because I find it as a good guide when making decisions, making moral judgements, or when self-reflecting. Balance comes from the personal philosophy I have that everything exists in dualities where one opposite opposing concept cannot exist without its counterpart. For example, we wouldn’t have any concept of good without the existence of evil, light existing without darkness, or sunlight producing life without rain. Balance equalizes these opposing forces and use each of their strengths to generate an optimized outcome. Valuing balance allows me to consider opposing perspectives in order to optimize growth as reconciling opposing views produces informed decisions/understanding. For example if one were to  develop rules or policies governing a group of people, it’s always important to integrate the proven, traditional values of the group with more modern, progressive ideas in order to preserve the culture of the group but also to implement necessary change. Another example would be that as a leader, it’s important to uphold order and policy in the workplace but at the same time be cognisant of people’s individual circumstances. When forming teams I personally believe the best teams are made with those who have diverse or opposing perspectives in order to make better decisions and gather information objectively.

Balance shapes my current behavior because I consciously strive to embody it in everything that I do. I find that balance is one of my key values that help me resolve conflicts because it allows me to put things into perspective and adapt to situations where black and white isn’t so clear. Being balanced allows me to look at things more objectively and helps remove any biases I have in search of the truth. To put this into practice in my personal endeavors, I try and balance my love for physical activity with time to grow intellectually as well. With physical activity, I try to balance my physical workouts of pure strength and speed exercises with flexibility, core, and rehab exercises. In academics, I try to balance my understanding of qualitative, social science-related disciplines with effort to develop an understanding of quantitative, scientific-based material.

I don’t believe I have complete mastery over any value as there’s always room for improvement in anything you. However, I do believe that I have become effective in utilizing this value in my daily life and embody it through my actions and personal philosophies.