* Balanced forces mean that all the forces acting on an object cancel each other out. There's no net force.

* Newton's First Law of Motion states that an object at rest will stay at rest, and an object in motion will stay in motion at a constant velocity, unless acted upon by a net force.

In other words: If the forces on an object are balanced, it will either stay still (if it was already still) or continue moving at a constant speed in a straight line (if it was already moving).

Example:

Imagine a book sitting on a table. The force of gravity is pulling the book down, but the table is pushing back up with an equal and opposite force. These forces are balanced, so the book remains at rest.