Family and Balance
- August 2012
- Hi Steph Simple Living
Hi Steph,
My name is Calwin Thoguru and I am from India. I admire the way you climb and all the crazy stuff you do ( I mean it in a good way ) and I can only imagine myself, doing wat you do in reality. I respect your free mindness, which obviously is seen in all the things that you have accomplished. My question to you is do you have any regrets of things that you had to give up, people that you had to ignore or leave behind to pursue your dream and fulfill that desire of being free and doing whatever you want to in life? Please don’t get me wrong because I come from a different culture where responsibilities and being there for my family out way my own desire of being free and do what I like to do in life. I need to sacrifice my personal interest’s because other people are dependent on me. Not in regard to financial crisis or any other physical need of those in my life but just because they want me to be with them, they like me to be around them have a genuine relationship. This is my background and I some times struggle between these two aspects of my life. I sure would like your opinion of how you balance your life.
Thank You
Calwin
Dear Calwin,
Thanks for writing to me, and thanks for asking me this question about how to balance life, because it is one of the great questions of life. I think it’s a privilege, to be struggling with this question, because it means we are lucky enough to have a lot of freedom to think about things like this. I think responsibility is a very important thing. If I had to list the most important qualities for a person (off the top of my head), I would say kindness, generosity and responsibility. For myself, freedom cannot come at the sacrifice of responsibility. But responsibility has a lot of meanings. It’s important to help your family. It’s also important to help yourself. You can’t live only for your own desires, but you can’t live only for others’ desires either. You also need to be honest about what fulfills you. If being with your friends and family is fulfilling in itself, then be aware that this is important to you–not just to them, but to you also. I really do believe that a person can find balance. And I also believe that having passions and being committed to those passions is part of being a responsible and fulfilled person.
Steph
