Important Body Parts...

"I just want to make sure I have a sense of balance between work and life, because my work is my life and the lines can get really blurry"

 ~ Drew Barrymore

Being that OptiFuse is truly a global company, I regularly receive e-mails (and sometimes phone calls) around the clock, 7-days a week.

 

I was recently at dinner with my wife and some friends when my mobile phone rang.  Seeing that the phone number was from someone other than my immediate family, I chose to ignore the call.

 

The other couple at the table were somewhat taken aback. 

 

"Jim, why didn’t you answer that call", asked my friend’s wife, "we don’t mind".

 

"...well because I’m having a wonderful dinner with you... that’s why... if it’s important, they’ll leave me a message or send me an e-mail", I replied.

 

I subsequently explained to our friends that just because I brought my phone with me to the restaurant (for family emergencies), it doesn’t mean that a caller has the right or privilege to interrupt my precious social time with friends.

 

In this way, I hope to maintain a critical balance in my busy life.
 

It is only when my life is in balance that my life seems complete and whole...

 

To me, life’s balance is composed of three equal parts...

 

The body... the brain... the heart...

 

The Body

 

We have been given only one body, yet many of us take our bodies for granted. 

 

If we don’t maintain our health, then nothing else we do will matter.  Often if we feel sick... or have a tooth ache... or have a bulging disk in our backs... then it will be next to impossible to try to think of anything else other than the uncomfortableness that we currently have. 

 

There are some people who can’t get themselves out of bed in the morning because they might have overdid it the night before.  It’s hard to find any type of success while you’re still in bed.

 

We need to nourish our bodies with the proper types (and quantity) of foods that will help our bodies to perform at an optimum level. 

 

We can’t expect to fill our bodies with low nutritional / high caloric junk food and expect our bodies to perform well.  Providing the body with food with high nutritional value helps to prevent illness and promotes a healthy immune system. 

 

We wouldn’t try to run our cars on sugar water... it’s not the right type of fuel to properly engage the engine.  In the same way we should look at the right type of fuels to allow our internal motors to work properly...

 

Exercise and physical activity are equally important in maintaining a strong body.  Some people can’t do certain types of exercise due to physical limitations... but there are always alternative ways to add resistance and cardio training in one’s daily routine.

 

Physical activity gets the blood to circulate better bringing more oxygen to the brain and other organs.  More oxygen in the brain leads to more thoughts and ideas. 

 

Exercise also leads to more endorphins being released from the brain, giving us a more positive outlook and optimism towards life and the world around us.

 

It’s not important that you join a gym, buy expensive equipment, or hire a fitness coach.  What is important is that you find some physical routine that you can do several times each week that might include: walking, running, cycling, swimming, hiking, calisthenics, yoga, skiing, playing basketball, walking up stairs or playing tennis... it doesn’t matter what you do... it only matters that you do it!

 

In addition to nutrition and exercise, we need to maintain our appearance, grooming, and hygiene.  Right or wrong, people do judge us so our outward appearance is important and makes us feel better about ourselves.   

 

Lastly, it’s important that we rest our body, allowing it to recover from the physical stresses that we place upon it each day. Vigorous physical activity allows us to sleep better and feel well-rested each morning.

 

If you take care of your body, then you will have the strength, vitality, and muscle to power forward toward your dreams.

 

The Brain

 

In the same way that we nourish and exercise our bodies, we must find a way to nourish and exercise our brains.

 

Each and every day, we should continue to learn something new... learning will help us to acquire or hone our skills... skills necessary to find achievement and success... 

  

Be given a fish and you’ll eat for a day... learn to fish and you’ll eat for a lifetime...

 

You can always take my money... but my skills will be with me forever.  

 

Learning comes in many forms.

 

We can read and absorb information from books... books about other people... instructional books... books about ideas and thoughts. 

 

We can learn from teachers, coaches, and/or mentors.  Other people sharing their knowledge with us.

 

We can learn from doing and experimenting... measuring the true results against the expected results.

 

We can learn from watching other people and observing how they do something correctly or incorrectly and try to improve on their ideas and methods.

 

We can learn through debate and discourse... perhaps someone else’s point of view could open new avenues of thinking and philosophies.

 

It doesn’t matter how or where the learning occurs... but we need be open to learning new information and ways of doing things... in this way we will continue to add tools to our tool box so when there is a problem or opportunity we will have the knowledge and skills to succeed where others will fail.

 

The Heart

 

A machine can have a body (or an engine)... a machine can have a brain... but only a human being has a heart.

 

A heart is what gives us faith in ourselves and others.  The first step to achievement is believing... believing in yourself... in the nobility of the cause... believing in others...

 

It pushes us to get up in the morning to start the new day... to face new challenges and new opportunity.

 

Our heart allows us to persevere when we want to give up.  It helps us to push aside self-doubt and fear and allows us to charge forward never knowing for sure what lies ahead of us.

 

It is our heart that reaches out to help others in need by sharing our resources of time, knowledge and money to those less fortunate. 

 

It is our heart that engages family and friends in order to share love and a common community.

 

Our body gives us the strength...
Our brain gives us the skills...
Our heart gives us the will...

 

Each are of equal importance... none of which we can neglect or ignore... this is indeed the truest sense of balance that we can hope to achieve for a rich and prosperous life.

 

Thank you very much for your support of OptiFuse where we hope that you always find the balance that keeps you from falling.