The more out of balance your life is the more stress you feel.

I think your coach is wrong. Balance is not about equal shares or narrow categories of life activities. Life is also more like juggling than beam balance.

You are juggling a variety of dissimilar objects each with its own trajectory and weight. The weight is the value you place on that activity. For some people gainful employment has great value to the point of dominating everything else. Other people their family is most valuable. Students it could be classes, sports, or social activities. The retired it could be selfcare or hobbies. The wealthy is could be their philanthropy. The stress comes for inappropriate apportionment or over commitment. A strict one third, one third, one third apportionment is most likely wrong most of the time and does nothing about over commitment. The apportionment must be flexible to react to circumstances and commitment should wax and wane with the seasons and your health.

TEK