Individual Entry: Input and Output
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October 10, 2005

Introspection : Input and Output

One of the recurring themes of this blog is my ongoing desire to seek balance in my life. There is just too much I want to do and not enough time, so I have been weeding through my life, pulling out those projects I realized I'll never get around to finishing (thus making more room for those that I may complete), discontinuing activities that don't provide enough benefit, etc.

Of course "balance" can be defined in terms of many dimensions. Just as I can balance my body left vs. right, but then fall forward because I did not balance front/back; so also one can achieve a balanced live according to one metric only to fail in others. So part of this process for me has been discovering the various dimensions of personal balance.

My current contemplation has been on the question of finding balance between input and output.

On the one hand, I read, watch television, see movies, play games. All of these activities can be used to bring things value into my life – knowledge, ideas, perspectives. On the other hand, I write, befriend, teach, serve (whether work, family, church, community). All of these activities (hopefully) give benefit to others in some way. It is the case that my various input activities inform my various output activities. What I read and watch affects what I write. Exposure to other points of view helps me as I interact with others, and so on.

But the question I have been asking myself is: am I putting enough energy into "output" to justify all of the time I spend on "input"? Or have I already accumulated enough knowledge, experience, perspectives to last me the remainder of my life? I don't think I am up to that point yet; but neither am I comfortable saying I am doing all I should to use what I have fed into my head over the years

Stepping back, these days my "output" primarily takes two forms. First, there is this blog; but given my recent frequency of postings, I clearly can not point to this as a shining example of contribution to society. Second, I am teaching a weekly Bible study (we are starting the book of Philippians this week). While that venue does provide a good opportunity to share some of what I have learned, an hour a week weighed against many hours of input activities seems rather paltry. In addition to those two, I do occasionally have the opportunity to share some what I have learned in private conversations; but those occasions are irregular and unpredictable.

The bottom line is that I think I need to spend more time sharing what's in my head. I need to make time each day for this blog. I need to set aside more time each week to creative writing projects. I need to look for other opportunities to teach.

What's the point of learning more if I don't share what I have already learned?

Posted by Steven at October 10, 2005 07:21 PM