At what point does what you do routinely turn into a distraction?

Everything that interests me, I look at with a “dry sponge meet drip” mentality. No drop left behind. I want to know it all, whether it’s about the economy, the stock market, multiplicity, book marketing, the Red Sox, diabetes, cats, weight loss surgery, or general preparedness. I am often reading five disparate topics throughout the day, while keeping an eye on a mute CNBC. The more complex stuff I catch up on over the weekend.

It’s good to have interests. In my darkest days, I played video games endlessly. What I most sought was “mindlessness”. (Be really careful what you wish for.) As I slowly came out of that phase, I added interests and related activities to the point now where I have things to read/do 24 hours a day if I really wanted to.

So I went from “mindless” to “fascinated” in my usual all or nothing style. My head is booked up for the next six months! But I wonder if the “busy-ness” I created, and which certainly served a valid purpose in drawing me back into my own life, is now weighing on what I say I want to accomplish.

• I want to get back into serious writing time.
• I want to explore in depth how my journey has changed since Becoming One was first published.
• I want to develop this blog and the “missing links” into a valuable resource.

Something that has always eluded me is the concept of balance. (Ya think?) That sounds almost like a non-sequitor, but it’s actually the key here. I need to find and “get” balance — without somehow turning it into something newly all-consuming.