Goals in Balance

Sunday as I was lying low recuping from a brief illness I read "Willow Whip" by Irene Bennett Brown. It is a good reminder for driven vet school types.

Willow, main character of the book, is motivated to help her father purchase the farm they rent so they don't have to move around all the time. Good aim, to be sure, but her motivation becomes an obsession and basically ruins half a year of her life. One of her best friends encouraged her to keep life in better balance, not work all the time, but she spurned him and his advice and plowed on toward destruction. Happily, she got heat stroke while crazily trying to single-handedly harvest alfalfa hay in searing hot weather. She was out of it for over a week, and gained a healthier view on life when she recovered.
Goals are good, but must be kept in balance with the ultimately important things in life -- God, family, friends, joy, love, etc.