“All things in moderation” was one of my dad’s favorite things to tell me. And for me NOT to abide by, for a long time. With age I’ve gotten better at it, but I still have to remind myself of it regularly. I’ve come to associate it with another popular phrase,”this too shall pass”. Because I try to associate moderation with the highs and lows of life as well. Nothing bad will last forever, neither will anything good, so I try to keep pretty evenly balanced. Moderate celebrations, moderate disappointment.
If I could buy a guarantee for my kids to learn one thing, it would be that they keep everything in moderation. No one has ever become obese from eating one doughnut. No one has lived forever because they worked out for 3 hours a day every day of their life. Working overtime every week might make for a better employee momentarily, but it will make for a worse parent, too. Give too much focus to one aspect of life, and the other aspects will suffer for it. I suspect my kids won’t listen to me when I tell them, maybe if I tell them it’s from Grandpop and not me it will have a better impact?
I try to keep things balanced in my life – work time, play time, family time, quiet time. And I try to keep my attitude balanced the same way, don’t get carried away with the emotion of the moment. Let it go when it’s time to move on to something else.
