How to work with sense of desire to achieve life balance

What you need to know:

Most of us miss our best opportunities because they come disguised as hard work. Hard work is a fact of life. If you want to be successful, you have to work hard. Thomas Edison was on the money when he remarked, “Genius is 1 per cent inspiration and 99 per cent perspiration.”


Enlightened persistence means working with a sense of desire and conviction: the desire to achieve Life Balance and the conviction that you can reach it, despite all the challenges that arise.

Most of us miss our best opportunities because they come disguised as hard work. Hard work is a fact of life. If you want to be successful, you have to work hard. Thomas Edison was on the money when he remarked, “Genius is 1 per cent inspiration and 99 per cent perspiration.”

But hard work doesn’t have to be drudgery. It can be a source of great enjoyment. The writer of Ecclesiastes expressed it well: “There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labor.” If you develop joy in your work, you’ll find that it produces positive energy, which promotes balance. To develop joy in your work, you must be doing something that you’re good at, that is meaningful to you, and that contributes to your family, your organization, and society.

Find something you’re good at and that you enjoy doing. There’s something out there for everyone. For many people, hard work is a drain on energy and emotions. They’re tired and stressed out. Why? Because they are not focused on what they’re good at, and they can’t see their work as a benefit to their families, their organizations, and society.

Find the work that brings you joy. When you find it, pursue it with enlightened belief. Enlightened belief will lead to persistence, and persistence will make it happen. OK, so it won’t be easy. I spent approximately 10,000 hours in my writing and speaking career before I could place my book in a bookstore. But I persisted because I knew I was going to make it, no matter what. “You may have the loftiest goals, the highest ideals, and the noblest dreams,” wrote Nido Qubein “but remember this: Nothing works unless you do and persist in doing.”

You display enlightened persistence when you have passion for what you do. When you love what you do, you work with gusto. Generally, this comes about when you align your work with your personal mission. You may need to do some soul-searching to discover your noble calling and purpose in life.

Meditation and reflection can help you discover your personal mission. By going into silence, you connect with your spirit and trigger your intuition and gut feeling – your sixth sense. Enthusiasm is the positive inner force that makes things happen. It stems from a gracious persuasion and an excitement for life. The less-determined do only what is required of them.

, and sometimes less.

but winners always do more than is required, and they do it with enthusiasm. Enthusiastic people experience life from the inside out and display inspiration, courage, creativity, and insight.

Most of us, to varying degrees, carry baggage from the past that hampers our future success. You must constantly remind yourself that your past failures in achieving Life Balance will not determine your future success. They just determine your starting point. Your future success will be based on your actions today. You must have total belief in this for enlightened persistence to arise.

If your life has been unbalanced for a while, things will not change overnight. You will need to implement and persist the enlightened way – having the knowledge and faith that your persistence will pay off. Without this belief and conviction, your persistence will carry no weight. But be aware that challenges and changes will keep testing you and will keep changing the landscape. Here, again, you need to persist with enlightenment.

Condensed message from “Life Balance the Sufi Way” by Azim Jamal and Dr. Nido Qubein. For feedback email [email protected]