Last year I wrote about a tension I feel between a practical approach to my career and a more emotional, aspirational one. These sentences sum it up pretty well.

Grandpa Don’s way is a pragmatic way to think about your life and career. Steve Job’s way is an emotional way to think about your career. The thing I have to keep reminding myself of is that there is no perfect balance. No magic recipe that blends just the right measure of pragmatism and emotion for my unique goals and situation.

At the time I was thinking about balance similar to the same way I’d think about pacing myself during a race. I want to find that sweet spot between speed and restraint that allows me to run as fast as possible without burning out.

But the more I’ve thought about this the more I think this metaphor isn’t the right one (or the mindset I’m trying to describe with the metaphor). It’s not an either/or, it’s not somewhere in the middle, it’s doing both.

• I can be aspirational sometimes and I can be practical sometimes.
• I can go fast sometimes and I can go slow sometimes.
• I can hustle sometimes and I can just do the work sometimes.
• I can work long hours one day and be lazy the next.

In other words, maybe balance between Don and Steve isn’t finding the right spot on a sliding scale, maybe it’s about how much time I spend following each.

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