Life Balanced

Over the last few weeks I’ve been guilty of not following my own advice and it subsequently led to a stressful and overwhelming couple of months. It started with the best intentions - I have a lot of exciting goals I want to accomplish in both my personal and professional life, and I’ve been working diligently to make them a reality.

The problem is that I spread myself too thin. I burned out, lost my enthusiasm, had no time for the things I truly enjoy (like writing on my Life Balanced blog. There’s irony for you!), and I wasn’t really seeing success in any one area. I was living a very unbalanced life.

Although I’m still working on getting “balanced,” I’ve put together a few tips I think will be helpful if you ever find yourself in the same situation.

Shorten the list - Make a list of all the projects and commitments that have led to your unbalanced life and accept the fact that doing all of these tasks at this given time is not an option. What can you postpone for the future, outsource or remove?

One project I finally eliminated was cleaning my garage. It had been left open one night during the S. Cal fires and every inch of it was covered in soot and dirt. I kept saying I was going to tackle portions of it every weekend until it got done. Instead it was the albatross around my neck. I finally paid someone to do it today and it was the best money ever spent. Not only do I have a clean garage, I feel less weight on my shoulders and helped someone else make a few bucks in the process. Tim Ferris has a great book about outsourcing your life called, The 4-Hour Workweek that I highly recommend.

Be a bit selfish - If you are overwhelmed, look at the things you are doing and determine if they are for your benefit, someone else’s benefit or a combination of the two. Spending all your time helping others is a very worthy cause. However, if you are sacrificing your own goals and dreams as a result, no one wins. Minimally, find a win-win situation.

Prioritize and minimize - I’m not talking about a to-do list here; I mean goals that will change your life. Do you want a new career? Are you interested in moving? Do you want to improve your relationship with your spouse or partner? What I’ve finally realized is that if I focus all my efforts on the one most important goal, not only will I see success, it will also positively impact the other goals I’m interested in reaching. You can do it all, you just can’t do it all at the same time.

Maintain your health and relationships - When people get too busy, exercise and healthy eating seem to be two of the first things to drop off. In reality, health should be your number one priority because if you aren’t healthy, you won’t have the ability or energy to do anything. If you’re like me, you begin to feel sluggish, unattractive and out of control because your body is telling you that it needs attention. If you are taking care of your health, you will feel energized, happy, attractive and unstoppable.

Healthy relationships are essential. You’ll need friends and loved ones to support you (both physically and emotionally) in reaching your goals. They will also provide a reality check when you’ve take on too much. It is important to make time for fun so that when someone asks what you’ve been up to, you actually have something to say (beside working hard). And lastly, you will want your friends around when it comes time to celebrate your success.

If you liked this post, please click one of the icons below or subscribe to my RSS feed. Thank you!