Jimmy Buffet Escapes

How I got there was an interesting path, but where I landed was even more interesting. It was on a longish quote by Jimmy Buffet about his music, copied here.

“It’s pure escapism is all it is…I’m not the first one to do it, nor shall I probably be the last. But I think it’s really a part of the human condition that you’ve got to have some fun. You’ve got to get away from whatever you do to make a living or other parts of life that stress you out. I try to make it at least 50/50 fun to work and so far it’s worked out.”

“You’ve got to have some fun.” Amen to that! For Jimmy, he tried to make it “at least 50/50,” and that isn’t a terrible ratio, perhaps. As long as you don’t work too hard at having fun. And of course there are many for whom work is fun. I’ll come back to that because, as the saying goes, I resemble that remark.

Part of the reason this quote from Jimmy struck a chord with me is because I was already thinking about writing on “life balance,” often called “work-life balance.” I personally don’t like that as well, because it puts work on one side and everything else on the other. Jimmy did that with work and fun.

It’s one of those phrases everybody uses but rarely defines. The assumption is that everyone knows what it means. Even those who do often wonder how to achieve it, or why.

This is good

According to Perplexity (not a bad use for AI), the benefits of the right life balance include:

• Enhances overall well-being and life satisfaction

• Reduces the risk of burnout, stress, and related health issues

• Improves job satisfaction and performance

I’ll take all of those, please.

But isn’t it possible to say, “I can’t get there, so my life-satisfaction is worse now.” Or, “I’m stressed by trying to get a better balance.” Maybe even, “How can my job satisfaction improve if I’m always thinking about balance?”

I know, that makes me sound like a cynic. And I’m really not, especially here, because I think Jimmy Buffet was on the right track. Even though good things can be turned to bad, they should still be pursued. The benefits of what I call “doing life right” are tremendous, both externally and internally.

Are you out of balance?

This is one of those things that, as soon as you hear about it, you might think you need to fix. Maybe you don’t, even if it kind of feels that way right now.

Life balance is not a thing, like an ideal weight, that can be achieved and then maintained. It will often “get out of whack” for a time, because life happens. A good friend of mine recently spent more than 30 straight days in the hospital. He wasn’t a patient there, his wife was, and he needed to be with her.

How was his life balance? Perfect. But not in line with the formula.

Far less important is the time when that project at work has to be done, so you knuckle down and work 70 hours in a week and get it done. Is that out of balance?

You have to measure your life balance against life, against circumstances, and in a very large part against the needs of others.

It sounds strange to say, but a great way to achieve better life balance is to think less of yourself. Not only does it help you find the way, it obviates all of those snarky questions I asked up above.

Perhaps you surf, or ride a skateboard. I don’t do either, but there was a time when I did a little bit of windsurfing. It’s like being on a surfboard with a sail, and it’s great fun — as long as you are in balance. I know, because I took lessons.

First we practiced on boards on dry land but on pivots to simulate being in water. Then we went out into the water, and I was fairly confident. I got onto the board, grabbed the uphaul line, lifted the mast, tried to grab the boom, and started shaking like a leaf. Within seconds I fell, being terribly out of balance.

Getting back up

There was nothing for me to do but try again.

Having just learned that falling (probably with flailing arms — no style points) into the water did not hurt, I was much less intimidated. I climbed back up, grabbed the line, lifted the mast and sail, grabbed the boom, and smiled.

Here’s the point. Balance as I’m walking around? Check. Balance even on a windsurfing board that is on a swivel on dry land? Check. On the board in the water with wind blowing? Not so much.

But even as life balance becomes more challenging, you still get back up, and, ideally, you recover faster but fall less because of better balance.

Jimmy was missing a part, and we might be as well.

Jimmy Buffet mentioned two parts to life: work and play. But there is one more part to life that is important to life balance, and that part is called “leisure.” That gives us three parts, and when they are placed in their proper order, leisure is more important than work and more important than play — at least for having a good life.

The original Greek for leisure is often translated “free time.” It isn’t work, and it isn’t play. The philosopher Mortimer J. Adler defined it like this: Leisure is…

“…all those activities by which the individual grows morally, intellectually, and spiritually, through which he attains personal excellence and also performs his moral and his political duty.”

We may have a need to work to gain subsistence, and most of us have a need for recreation — to regain energy, etc.

But we have an obligation to pursue leisure in order to improve ourselves.

So let’s party, and let’s work hard, but let’s not ignore the part of life that makes work and play better: leisure.

That will keep your life in balance.