Balance = Happiness = Success

Adii Pienaar is co-founder of WordPress theme shop and ecommerce platform WooThemes.

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These days, my idea of success is a well-managed balance between time with people I love and a project I'm deeply passionate about. Right now, that's Campaign Monitor. Time spent with each one of these has a huge impact on how much I enjoy the other. When I get that balance right, I'm at my happiest. And in the end, isn't that what success is all about? — Dave Greiner in the latest version version of Offscreen Magazine.

This is such a lovely quote and awesome mindset, which is also proof that it is possible to fix the “generally broken startup mindset” that most of us within the industry has.

In my post “We've Broken This Startup Thing”, I say this about balance:

I also wholeheartedly agree with Micah Baldwin that things don’t need to be in balance to be in balance. Balance is whatever makes you happy at any given time.

So if balance = happiness = success, why then are we always chasing the next thing? I can admit that this is something that I struggle with quite often, regardless of the countless blessings and awesomeness I have in my life.

For me, I've found a balance where I respect that my passion and ambition is a beast that needs to be fed, and a space where I can truly appreciate a single moment.

My passion and ambition mostly relates to professional dreams and goals, which tends to be longer term in nature. This makes it very tempting for me to allow that burning fire to simply consume all other aspects of my life.

I've however actively countered this and by finding neutrality in the moments, where these characteristics and thoughts are the last thing on my mind. Time spent with my wife and my son have been the easiest moments to just fully immerse myself into and I've been trying to apply the same mindset to time spent with friends / family or time spent practicing whatever hobby. (Something evidenced in my Instagram feed.)

It's been hard work and a very active and conscious decision to pursue a balance that makes sense to me and my family. Slowly but surely though, I'm finding myself in a much better space, where these things are become more natural and easier.

This article originally appeared on adii.me, part of the Svbtle network, and was published with permission. | Image Source: Flickr