Yin and Yang

Hello everyone 👋

This week, I tried the iOS15 beta but then my phone glitched out. Had to do a full phone restoration/backup and now I can’t even re-upload my photos back on my phone properly. Oh well, at least I have a fresh new phone now.

I started reading Jordan B. Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos this week, and I’m loving it. Gone through 23% of the book so far, and finished the first four rules:

I’m looking forward to reading the next 8 rules over the next week and a bit. One thing that stood out to me however, was the notion of balance in your life. In rule #2, he repeated brings up the daoist belief of the yin and yang — representing both order and chaos. In this, there is both possibility for chaos to come from order, and order to come from chaos. Too much chaos isn’t good, and likewise an excess of order is unhealthy. The world exists, and even develops, through the interplay of both of these forces.

Balance. As a student, we’ve probably explored the skill of time management several times, recounting various strategies to optimize this seemingly essential skill. It would probably be safe bet to extend that assumption to your daily schedule — how do I balance my work and social life? Moreover, “work-life balance” is probably a term that you have used within your language within the past few weeks.

Thinking about this week, I believe that the majority strive for balance, most unawarely disguised in control. I used to be a control dude — I needed to have my schedule planned out, routines set out, and an expectation of everything that could happen, just so I could be comfortable in a given setting. That was before, and I’m aiming to adopt a more spontaneous lifestyle that allows room for serendipity to kick in.

What I’ve been trying to do was to leave certain evenings free (8pm+) as well as weekends to just take time for myself and/or spend time with friends. Seems like quite a “working person’s” schedule but it definitely does help in keeping me grounded and overall feeling quite balanced.

Let me know by dropping a comment below, or by reaching out to me on Twitter. Have a great week :)

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