We’re told from every direction that we need to “find balance.” Balance between work and home. Balance between taking care of ourselves and taking care of others. Balance between ambition and rest. It sounds noble, even wise. But let’s be honest: balance doesn’t exist the way people sell it. Life is not a neat scale where everything weighs the same. It’s a constant shifting game of priorities, and with every choice comes a cost.
The truth is, you’re always sacrificing something. Time with family for career advancement. A night of sleep for a deadline. Health for hustle. The present moment for the promise of a future. No matter how carefully you try to arrange your days, you can’t hold everything equally. And when we try, the only thing we gain is guilt.
Balance is marketed like a product. Books, courses, workshops all promise you can have it all if you just follow the formula. They whisper that you’re failing because you haven’t mastered it yet. But what if the problem isn’t you? What if the real lie is that balance was never possible in the first place?
Think about it: every decision you make tilts the scale. Spend an extra hour at the office and you’ve taken that hour away from your family. Say yes to a project and you’re saying no to rest. Even small things add up—scrolling your phone means you’re not reading a book, or walking outside, or listening to your child’s story. Choices close doors. That’s not failure. That’s life.
The weight of “balance” makes people feel they’re doing it wrong. You see someone who seems to have it all together—successful job, fit body, happy family, glowing Instagram feed—and you wonder what’s wrong with you. But what you don’t see are the sacrifices behind the curtain. Maybe they’re winning at work but losing sleep. Maybe their marriage is strained. Maybe their smile hides exhaustion. No one gets everything.
So instead of chasing a perfect middle ground, maybe we need to make peace with imbalance. Life is seasons, not symmetry. Some seasons require pouring yourself into career growth. Others demand presence at home. Some seasons test your health because hustle takes over. Others remind you to slow down and heal. The balance isn’t in every single day—it’s in the rhythm of your life as a whole.
That doesn’t mean living carelessly. It means choosing intentionally what you’ll sacrifice. If you know that saying yes to your career right now means missing some family dinners, then you carry that choice with awareness. If you decide to guard your weekends fiercely, then you accept that your career may move slower. Either way, you’re not failing—you’re making conscious decisions about where your energy goes.
Everything costs something. The question is not how to avoid sacrifice, but how to direct it. Will you trade sleep for scrolling, or sleep for finishing that dream project? Will you trade time with your children for an extra meeting, or will you let some professional opportunities pass so you can be there for the moments that matter? There is no neutral option. Every “yes” is also a “no.”
The pressure to “do it all” is crushing. But freedom comes when you admit you can’t. When you stop apologizing for imbalance and start owning it, life feels lighter. You’re not chasing a myth—you’re living reality with open eyes.
So stop punishing yourself with an impossible standard. Stop believing that balance is some golden prize you just haven’t reached yet. Look at your life honestly. Decide what matters most in this season. Choose what you’ll let go of, and accept the cost without shame.
Because balance isn’t real. But peace is. And peace comes when you understand the trade-offs you’ve made, and you stand by them.
GK
Georgi Kisyov – Reflections & Books 
Oh, superb, Georgi! That needed saying – I’ve had a long and, to put it politely, varied life, but I’ve always tried to live out your tenet of accepting the cost without shame (though I’ve never found such a neat way to express it) and it does bring peace, even when it’s sometimes a slightly battered peace. Thank you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for sharing this. I love how you put it—‘a slightly battered peace.’ That’s so true. Peace doesn’t always look perfect, but when it comes from accepting the cost without shame, it’s real and lasting. I’m grateful my words connected with your experience. Have a wonderful new week.
GK
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hello Georgi,
that’s the best advice on balance someone can give. Love it. 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hello,
Thank you so much! 😀 I’m glad the message spoke to you. Balance often feels like a rule we’re supposed to follow, but sometimes the best freedom comes when we stop chasing it and just choose what matters most. Have a great new week.
GK
LikeLiked by 1 person
nice
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks. Have a great new week.
GK
LikeLike
So true. Thanks for sharing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You are very welcome. Have a beautiful new week.
GK
LikeLiked by 1 person
How very true! Can’t say how much feedback received over the years for not having a perfect time management/work/life balance. To which I eventually learned this truth – it didn’t exist. And yes then the weight lifted, I could own the choices as they came, & care less about the balance others tried to impose. Do what has to be done but don’t get trapped in the balance box. ~ Rosie
LikeLiked by 2 people
Rosie, thank you for this! 🌿 I completely understand what you mean. The pressure of that so-called ‘balance box’ can feel heavy, but once we see it doesn’t exist, there’s such freedom. Owning our choices brings far more peace than trying to please the expectations of others. Have a beautiful new week.
GK
LikeLiked by 1 person
’cause existence itself is chaotic, we barely hold onto one stable point mostly, but what gets us out is that we are “moving” to, if you know what I mean. We are not static.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hello,
Yes, I know exactly what you mean. Existence is rarely stable, and maybe that’s the point—we’re not meant to be static. As long as we keep moving forward, even through the chaos, there’s meaning in the motion.
Have a great new week.
GK
LikeLike
It takes practice to attain balance, it’s a lifelong experiment.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s so true—it really does take practice. Balance (or what we call balance) is never finished, it’s a lifelong experiment of shifting, adjusting, and learning. Every season teaches us something new.
Have a great week.
GK
LikeLiked by 1 person
You too!
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is such a refreshing perspective. We’re so often told to ‘find balance’ as if it’s a formula, but life is really about trade-offs and conscious choices. I love how you frame it as seasons, not symmetry.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hello,
Thank you so much! I really like how you put it—life isn’t a formula but a series of choices. Seeing it in seasons rather than symmetry helps take the pressure off. Each season has its own rhythm, and that’s where the peace comes from.
Have a great new week.
GK
LikeLiked by 1 person
Excellent! Work-life balance, in particular, is very difficult to achieve, if a person can even achieve it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hello,
Absolutely! Work-life balance is probably the hardest myth of them all. It’s rarely achievable in the way people describe it—but making intentional choices about where our time goes makes all the difference.
GK
LikeLiked by 1 person
I completely agree with you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
A toast to you, GK—
for tipping the scales and refusing the myth.
Balance is a salesman’s word,
but you’ve called it out for what it is:
smoke on the horizon,
a mirage built to keep us chasing.
Life was never meant to weigh even.
It was meant to lean,
to spill,
to cost.
Peace isn’t the middle ground—
it’s the fire you choose to sit beside,
knowing what you left in the dark.
Here’s to imbalance,
and to the truth that steadies us far more
than symmetry ever could.
— Marin Vale
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hello,
Marin, this is stunning. 🔥 The way you’ve captured it—‘peace isn’t the middle ground, it’s the fire you choose to sit beside’—gave me chills. Thank you for putting such beauty into words and for raising this toast to truth. I’ll carry your lines with me.
Have a great day.
GK
LikeLike
Very well said. Such a pleasure to here a sensible voice responding to the “wellness” babble that is so prevalent on popular forums.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hello,
Thank you so much! I agree—the constant ‘wellness’ talk can feel like noise sometimes. I’m glad these words felt sensible and cut through the babble. Grateful you took the time to read and share this.
Have a great Friday.
GK
LikeLiked by 2 people