I suppose it's in the difference between working hard and working smart, Joey.

Also time management.

My father was a person who worked a great deal and succeeded at his job at the expense of relationships with himself, his wife, and his children ...

I think, perhaps, the secret to it is really knowing yourself and the people in your life. If having balance is truly important to you, I think you can achieve it over time. I don't see why not.

Recently I have been learning a great deal of things. I have been attending a school where the schedule and requirements are rigorous. You really have little time for many extra-curricular activities. So my life, by choice, is now pretty unbalanced. I don't have the social outlets I used to have and many forms of enjoyment have been replaced by work. It's given me a great opportunity to learn about balance and imbalance.

I sometimes just go with the flow and sometimes struggle to gain balance. It's touch and go, currently, but by being in this situation I am learning about my limits and about balance.

I think balance and success has to do with how you use your time. When do you do what and how well do you do it? How well can you switch gears? How completely can you commit yourself to a given task for a given amount of time? How well can you notice and respond to signals that it's time to switch?

I have a friend who told me about an ex of hers who was excellent at what he did at work. He had an amazing concentration, but he was always putting her to the side and always preoccupied with work. He did what he did extremely well, but wasn't a good mate. Why? Well, he wasn't totally clear about what was really important to him and how to manage his time and attention. I think it all boils down to how you use your consciousness in time.

I hope that helps. And, really, there's always an element of sacrifice involved. For as much as people like to believe we have unlimited resources, we are all only human and we have limits. How well you can live within those limits is the question, IMO, to answer. Sacrifice isn't necessarily a bad thing, because it makes us realize how valuable each part of our lives are.