Temperance plays a part in each of our worlds. It’s a fickle game—a puzzle for each person to determine his or her personal settings in life. Some people live their whole lives off-balance, never fully reaching their potential.
How temperance is defined here is balancing the temporal enjoyments you value (whether it be food, drink, consumer goods, travel, stability, independence, freedom of time) with the bigger goals you have in life. There is a personal line between excess and intention. Stepping over the line slides into diminished meaning or deprivation. In times when my focus was indulgence in its diverse forms, what I found instead was a labyrinth-like, sneaking sense that something was missing. In yo-yoing from one extreme to the other, Goldilocks style, I’ve learned the following: the grass is not greener on the other side; it’s different with its own set of pros and cons and the same in its lack of solution.
[Read more…] about Tempering Your Life Balance: The 3 Stage Process