Passion and Balance Are Incompatible, Researchers Say. But Here’s a Way to Have Both.

According to the book The Passion Paradox, you can’t live with both passion and balance. Really?

Photo by Burst on Unsplash

My wife and I recently “settled down.”

If you know me at all, you know the phrase “settling down” grates on my soul like a shredder on a block of cheese.

Buuuuut, we did.

We bought a house and a lawnmower. We planted flowers in the front yard. We had a baby. I throw on a bathrobe in the mornings when the baby wakes up so I can feed her as quickly as possible and I often don’t change my clothes until near-noon. I work less, cook more, and introvert competitively. The hours slurped up by Netflix have scaled from Tall to Venti. The era of the “dad pooch” has dawned.

Last week, I turned 29, the final year of my twenties. I would describe the phases of my twenties as such:

• Early twenties — newlywed and in love, in debt, insecure, passionate.
• Mid twenties — professional DINKs, city life, curious, ambitious, vacillating.
• Late twenties — specialized skills, parents, homeowners, prospering, restless.

It seems that as I age, and…