Most of us long for balance, trying to find a perfect recipe for our days. It takes planning and discipline, and it’s often easier to wing it. We wonder why we feel whacked out all the time.
We all know the importance of balance.
We make sure the tires on our car are balanced, we balance our checkbooks (mostly), cook balanced meals for our families, and practice yoga to improve our balance. Are you following me?
Yet, most of us neglect our life balance.
We struggle with work/life balance.
We have a hard time balancing exercise into our schedule.
We neglect the importance of our own balanced diet.
We indulge in too much playtime or not enough.
How do you balance screen time? Netflix? Worship? Reading? Meditation? Sleep?
How often do you skip what you can’t fit in?
Is happy hour longer than an hour?
Balance is important. Like the macro app I’m using to track my nutrition, we need to track our life balance. Sometimes my life feels like a circus act. Life doesn’t slow down, and I’m constantly juggling. No one has it figured out perfectly.
This year I’m raising the bar on my circus act, from juggling to walking the tightrope. In other words, I’m working on balance.
For starters, I’m taking a step back and looking at my daily schedule and the areas of my life that need adjustment.
I have some lofty health goals, business goals, and relationship goals for 2022. All that requires putting the framework in place.
Having so many balls in the air can make life feel like it’s spinning out of control.
Here are my favorite five steps towards creating peace and balance.
- Gratitude. It’s the essential first step towards creating balance. Be still. Be grateful for all that you are and all that you have.
- Journal. Get a cool notebook and carry it with you. Write stuff down. You don’t have to write a book or a blog, just random thoughts or something you want to remember. Journaling makes you feel more calm and organized. You may also find it makes you more present too.
- Goals. What are yours? Do you have any? It doesn’t matter what they are, just set them. They must be things that you can accomplish and see results quickly. For example, if you want to lose weight, your end goal may be months down the road. So, your goal right now should be to drink more water, ditch desserts, go to the gym x days a week, etc. Something that is moving you towards your big goal, but something that you can check off daily.
- Schedule. Our life is the schedule set by others. Our work, our family, all of our obligations. That doesn’t leave much time for your physical and mental health priorities. When do you have fun? Play? Make a schedule for all of it and stick to it until you form habits that make YOU non-negotiable.
- Boundaries. You create boundaries when you make a schedule. No one asks you to blow off work or your kid’s baseball game, but you can get your arm twisted to skip a yoga class or 30 minutes of reading and meditation. Put those in your schedule and add the word no to your vocabulary.
Remember, you don’t find balance. You create it.
