A recent op-ed article in the the New York Times by David Brooks called The Way We Live Now discuss what is required to achieve the level of success of the current Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor. Today I’m not thinking about the scales of justice or the content of her decisions, but the scales of elusive personal balance and the amount of sacrifice required along each step of the way to get where Sotomayor is now.
Not surprisingly Brooks points to periods in Sotomayer’s life where her relationships were strong and other periods where they were limited at best. Its sad to think that this is what’s required of those seeking the highest levels of success, but I think that most entrepreneurs, executives in corporate America, lawyers, and doctors would say this rings true with their experience. It rings true for me already. Regardless of the content or substance of their jobs, I am truly thankful for women who are willing to make the personal sacrifices necessary to keep the glass ceiling elevated and to continue to push it higher and higher! I also applaud women who are honest about these trade offs and don’t perpetuate the “you can have it all” myth.
Balance is definitely elusive, and maybe it’s just an illusion. Maybe we shouldn’t even strive for it since “[b]alanced people don’t usually change the world“? There are only so many hours in a day, days in a month, months in a year, and we each have choices and decisions to make about what to do with our time and energy. That much I know.
