Be Balanced. Enjoy the whole rainbow of colors life has to offer.
I used to say that I want to be a great life generalist - not a specialist. And for the most part, I’m decent or even “not so bad” at a lot of stuff. I feel balanced. I got a t-shirt from my secret Santa* that said “World’s Okayest Bicyclist”. I thought … “yep”. I like biking, but I don’t want to go overboard. When I was in New Hampshire, I used to do a lot of painting (like art painting not wall). I used to paint images of cows a lot (because I knew how to draw a cow). People started giving me a ton of cow stuff because they thought I was “into” cows. Actually, I liked to paint … just happened that cows were what I painted. So, I stopped painting and creatively balanced myself in a different way. Now, it’s music and biking and cooking and reading - a little bit of everything. My interests are deep and they are wide -- and people stopped giving me cow stuff.**
I really think balance is so important in everything. Diet, exercise, binge watching, working, etc. If I (this is not likely to happen) work out too much - I’ll end up hurting myself. A friend used to work out like crazy on the elliptical machine up at the fitness center. She’d be really happy with her progress, and then she’d strain a muscle from working out too much and have to stop working out. This is my nightmare. I don’t want to go overboard in anything I do and have to stop.
We need specialists in our lives. Especially at ISH. But the specialists I know have other interests. They ride bikes/ski/run, and play instruments and enjoy their families. This is what makes ISH so special. Our specialists are also awesome generalists. They know balance.
*April in HR.
**now I get bike stuff.
