Strike a balance

beachrocks balanced in a pile.
(Photo: Shiva Smyth/Pexels | Text: David/ArtisanEnglish.jp)

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Phrase: Strike a balance

You know, the older I am, the wiser I become.

At least, I like to think so, anyway.

After many years of being in an international, interracial marriage, I can tell you the key to happiness is to strike a balance.


Strike a balance means to come to a compromise about something.

You accept some points from both sides of an argument to strike a balance.


Life is rarely a case of all or nothing.

Most of the time, if you take a little bit of this and a little bit of that, everything will be just right.

Life is a series of negotiations resulting in compromise.

Think about it for a second.

The people who strike a balance tend to be liked and happier than those who don’t.

The ones who never compromise are either unhappy or unliked by others.

When ‘demanding’ is used as an adjective, it doesn’t have a very positive nuance, does it?

If I were to say, ‘She is a very demanding woman,’ it would be the same as calling her a bit**.

If I were to say ‘he is very demanding,’ I might as well call him an assho** and be honest about it.

No, the key to happiness in life is all about knowing when to strike a balance.

Therein lies the crux of the matter, though.

How do you know when to do that?

Well, for most of us, it comes with age; others are lucky enough to have a good mentor, and sadly, some never learn.

Yes, there are times when you have to put your foot down and not accept compromise.

Those times, however, are usually few and far between.

Striking a balance is the best way to get by in life while being happy and liked.


Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test

This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).

On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 79.

The higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100, the easier the passage is to read.



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