Academic, Personal, and Life Balance

Students at Lawrence learn and grow in a variety of ways (both academic and non-academic) while at college. Life at Lawrence (and in general) can be fast-moving and busy, so it’s important to prioritize regular, reflective personal time. A committee at Lawrence recently wrote a statement on “healthy balance” that I completely endorse:

Healthy Balance Statement (written by a Lawrence ad-hoc Wellness Committee)

“Lawrence is a vibrant community, a place of tremendous vitality and richness that offers abundant opportunities for meaningful work and play.  This abundance brings with it the challenge of maintaining a healthy, balanced life—a life characterized by productive tension among such competing needs as work and play, sleep and wakefulness, solitude and sociability.  All members of the Lawrence community—students, staff, and faculty—have the responsibility to promote balance in their lives by making thoughtful choices. 

Balanced choices flow from an understanding that human flourishing requires the fulfillment of very real physical, emotional, spiritual, and social needs.

Balanced choices flow from an understanding that failure is part of the road to success in all endeavors, whether academic, extracurricular, or social.  The diligent pursuit of success in the long term will not preclude failures in the short term.  Conversely, unrealistic expectations of success in the short term can compromise both health and long-term success if basic human needs are neglected.

Balanced decision-making flows from an understanding that short-term imbalances are inevitable.  Short-term decisions must respond to immediate context, but those decisions are forming longer-term patterns of healthfulness.  Balance requires an ability to discern how long an imbalance may safely persist.

Balance results from two skills: avoiding imbalance through careful planning, and managing and containing imbalance when it occurs.”