Achieving Balance

The Center for Human Potential is a broad spectrum human services company that provides services to individuals and organizations to help them achieve balance and fulfillment.

Achieving fulfillment allows individuals and organizations to excel in all five of the primary areas of life.

Fulfillment is the word we use to describe the state/feeling where human beings are at their optimal level of consistent functioning (our potential).  We do not strive for happiness because we know that happiness is, by its nature, a temporary state that owes its existence in part to its contrast with sadness.  We also know that happiness defies being sought in a paradoxical way - the harder you look for it the more elusive it becomes.  Fulfillment on the other hand, is a quiet feeling that comes when we are living our lives in a manner that is consistent with who we are as human beings.  It is conspicuous for the absence of significant feelings of internal conflict.  When you approximate fulfillment you sleep better, you are free from unproductive stress, you are nicer to the people around you, and you have more strength to make tough choices.

Like happiness, fulfillment may not stay around long at first, but as you persist in living your life in a manner that is consistent with what is good for you and others it begins to stick.  As the feeling of fulfillment becomes more enduring, happiness, no longer being pursued,  becomes a more regular visitor.

As we considered ways in which to help people find fulfillment we thought that addressing life in the context of some fundamental aspects made the most sense.  The first four areas of life (physical, emotional, mental and spiritual) where obvious and have been talked and written about extensively.  We added financial to the list for a couple of reasons.  The first is our general philosophy that these areas represent parts of life that require energy and each has the capacity to draw so much energy that it can leave the other areas impoverished.  Anyone who has had financial troubles knows that worrying about being able to pay one's bills can be all consuming, leaving little energy for other needs.  It is somewhat like Maslow's hierarchy of needs - if you do not have food and shelter it is hard to think about self-actualization.  The second reason for including financial as a primary area is that we believe it reflects a change in mind-set for people of today's world and therefore our model would be incomplete without it.  What we mean by a change in mind-set is that we have become a very possession-oriented society where success is judged by how much we can acquire.  We may not be able to change this mentality, but one of the goals at the Center for Human Potential is to help people put their desire to acquire things in perspective.

The road to fulfillment is found by striking a dynamic balance within and between the five primary areas of life.  The balance we seek is dynamic because it is movable and it is personal.  It is movable when demands require we focus more energy temporarily in one area as circumstances may require.  It is personal because our individual needs differ e.g., I may need more time with my family on weekends than someone who needs to get away.  Dynamic balance is more flexible to the changing needs that are consistent with the human experience.  For example, a person who thinks that she must expend equal amounts of energy on work and home will find it challenging and stressful when circumstances create increased demand in one or the other.

Although there is obviously overlap between some, if not all, of the five areas, we find it useful to treat them as separate for the purpose of examining and modifying our lives.