5 Ways To Add More Balance To Your Life

 We need balance in order to live a happy and healthy life; everything in this world comes down to finding the proper balance. Take a moment to think about your life...many of us have family and work responsibilities, and many of us forget the responsibilities we have to ourselves...self-care must be a priority to help us add balance to our lives. Whether it’s in work life and home life, eating healthy and eating what makes you happy, doing stuff for others without neglecting yourself, etc., everything works better and goes more smoothly when you’ve got a balance.

Developing systems has been paramount to the success I've found in my life, and the rituals and habits that I choose to maintain are the foundation for balancing all the areas of my life. I owe a lot of thanks to the Indian Proverb A House With Four Rooms. Achieving said balance isn’t the easiest thing, but I've come up with five ways to introduce more balance into your life and get things going in the right direction.

 1) Prioritize

Prioritizing and scheduling can be a great practice to start introducing more of a sense of balance to your life. We all have busy lives and long to-do lists; the only way we’ll ever get everything done and find balance in our lives is by prioritizing what needs to be done when and scheduling our days. In my coaching practice, I teach the Power of the Top 3...a practice that allows me to get more done...more of what truly matters.

The tricky part of this is deciding just what is important; in some cases, your work may take priority, but in others, family or friends may take priority over your work on your to-do list. Only you can decide what’s important and what should be prioritized in your schedule and when...picking the Top 3 allows you to focus, and often, once the Top 3 is done, momentum drives you to move on and make more progress.

 2) Set Goals

Setting both long-term and short-term goals can prove to be incredibly helpful in achieving a balance in your life. It helps you keep your sights on what you want and what’s important, avoiding too much straying from your path. The short-term goals help you to track your progress as you work to achieve your long-term goals, and help you stay on track.

 3) Be specific in your schedule and review it

If, in order to achieve more balance, your goals were to, say, spend more time watching cooking shows, you’re more likely to complete it by saying “watch The Barefoot Contessa and Iron Chef every Tuesday and Thursday evening at 5,” then if you say “watch cooking shows at least twice a week.” Don’t set yourself up for failure. Make sure you set specific goals and schedule the time to make progress.

 Once you’ve completed your schedule and are sure that you’re specific in the goals you want to achieve and the steps necessary to get there, you should review your schedule. This is an incredibly important step allowing you to reflect on your goals and priorities to ensure everything is as you need it. My routine is to invest a small amount of time each Sunday evening to reviewing my weekly calendar, identifying my Top 3, and reviewing my progress for my monthly Top 3. This is how I determine my daily Top 3.

 4) Find an accountability buddy

An accountability buddy is someone that holds you accountable for the goals you’ve made, the priorities you’ve set, and the things you’ve said you’ve wanted to do and accomplish. This is a major element of my coaching practice; I become an accountability buddy to my clients to help them achieve their goals. It’s easier to find balance and stick to your goals and schedule when you have someone to be accountable to that’s is also accountable to you.

 Your relationship with your accountability buddy should be interactive and mutual. If you’re not pulling your weight or you're carrying more than your load, you could be hurting yourself more than you’re helping. 

 5) Always keep the process in mind

Life isn’t just about what you achieve and what you get, it’s about the journey, the process. From experience, I've learned how valuable this perspective is...your journey is your life...and for much of it, you have the ability to be intentional and create the results you desire. However, in order to achieve a proper balance, you need to always keep in mind that it’s more the process than the potential achievement.

 For example, you can make your goal to win a Nobel prize in literature, or you can make it to be paid to write for your career. The latter is a more achievable goal that focuses on the process and journey more than the achievement or prize at the end.

 Everyone needs balance in order to live a happy and healthy life. Finding the proper balance in your life can be difficult, but it’s not impossible and it’s well worth the effort. I hope this post has helped to point you on the right path towards a healthy balance in your life...it's SO worth it!

Until next time...

Lisa

P.S. This is a crazy time of year for many women as they try to find balance in their lives...I see this with regularity in my 6 and 12-week coaching programs, so I've opened my schedule to include hourly sessions...if you're interested in an intuitive coaching call with me, schedule a time here: www.calendly.com/coachlisamcgrath