Life is a balancing act since you cannot escape the fact that you will always be juggling work, home, money, health, and relationships. As we do all of this juggling, we have one goal in mind – to be successful on all fronts. Maintaining Work-life balance is the key to effective living and success.
I have tried many times to achieve this goal and have paid a heavy price for it – my well-being. During these stressful times, my mental, physical, and spiritual well-being were exhausted.
My life got out of hand. There was no balance in my life at all, which is not a good way to live and definitely not sustainable.
They say you need to reach a point of desperation before you wake up and find that you have to make a choice – do I keep getting out of control or do I stop spinning and rebalancing my life?
I choose to rebalance my life. So here are 5 simple things I did to start my journey of getting my life right. Follow these tips so that you too can rebalance your life.
#1. Find out what a balanced life means to you
To find balance in your life you need to find your center – the place where you can feel peaceful, present, and happy. To get to this place of equilibrium, you need to know what a balanced life looks like for you.
In his How to Lead a Well Balanced Life article, Gustavo Razzetti stated:
“Balance is not something we can achieve; it’s a state of mind. It is the realization that life is not stable but in constant motion. “
For me, in order to get into the mindset of a balanced life, I wrote down a list of all the activities that I enjoyed doing and that gave me a feeling of peace, joy, and a sense of wellbeing.
I then prioritized these activities as the top 5 that I would keep in my life.
Daily training for 60 minutes
Mindfulness – 10 minutes of meditation daily
Gratitude Diary – Every night I write down 5 things that I am grateful for that day (sometimes I miss a few nights but no more than 3 nights).
Don’t watch TV or talk on the phone in bed.
Healthy eating is a top priority – Limit my alcohol consumption to 2 nights a week and my special treats (almond croissants) to every 2nd Friday!
I knew I needed to develop a more positive mindset and these 5 activities have helped me.
#2. Stop trying to multitask and learn to prioritize
Our brains are not designed to multitask. The more we multitask, the more stress we put on our brains. The reason we multitask is that we think multitasking is valuable and a great asset.
What happens, however, is that we end up having hundreds of thoughts at once and constantly chatting in our heads!
This actually slows you down and instead of focusing on the “one thing” that you need to do, you end up getting distracted and going from one thing to another and accomplishing very little. At the end of the day, you are exhausted!
Creating balance doesn’t mean cramming a lot of things into everyday life. It’s about knowing what is important and what is not and figuring out how much capacity and energy to put into what is important to you.
Knowing your priorities, staying focused, and managing your time are the keys to rebalancing your life.
#3. Learn to say no and surpass the need
Being willing to say “no” is an important step in establishing balance in your life. There are many reasons why we say yes when we are overwhelmed and our life is spiraling out of control.
For me, that means saying yes to another project or another opportunity to believe that people would see that I am a high achiever and successful.
I couldn’t say no because it would mean people might think I wasn’t able or successful. Imagine that! My life was getting out of hand, but I kept saying yes.
What I ended up doing when I said yes was promised more than I could deliver and work on projects that I really didn’t want to do.
I learned that by saying no I created the opportunity to work on things that I really enjoyed and thereby got my life back with so much more energy.
Learning to say “yes” without resentment and “no” without remorse is the first step towards a balanced life.
#4. Create quiet spaces in your life and in your mind
If you lead a life that is out of whack, you are on speed dial. A lot is happening in your life and you have so much to do that you feel like you are running a race that you can’t seem to win!
Your body will tell you when your life is getting out of hand. One of the first signs is poor quality sleep. You have so much on your mind that you cannot sleep and after a while, your energy starts to drop.
Your mind feels foggy and there seems to be clutter and chaos all over your life.
When you recognize these signs, the best solution is to take action and look for ways to create space in your life where you can sit quietly and calmly and feel at peace.
Be aware that because your mind and body are set to chaos, clutter, and constant chatter, you will not reach this state of calm and clarity right away. It’s a gradual process.
Here are 3 things that helped me create the space I needed to be calm and peaceful:
- Downloaded the Calm app – an app for sleep and mediation. I subscribed to a ritual at the end of the day where I showered, drank a cup of soothing tea, and then meditated with calm.
- Scheduled a massage every 2 weeks for 3 months and prepaid all sessions. There were no excuses for me to reschedule an appointment because I was too busy and didn’t have time.
- If I had to reschedule, I had to reschedule immediately because I had paid for the sessions.
Journaling – This is a practice that requires minimal commitment. However, the results had a huge impact on me.
Through the diary, I was able to create space in my head and a sense of calm in my body. I could acknowledge what was on my mind and that meant that my thoughts and feelings were leaving my brain and body and I felt at peace.
#5. Embrace a healthy lifestyle – healthy eating and regular exercise
A healthy diet replenishes natural energy and strengthens your self-confidence and self-esteem. Exercise releases endorphins, the chemicals in our bodies that make us feel good.
I made an appointment with a nutritionist to find out which nutrition plan works best for me. I prepaid for a 2-month consultation, which meant that I would be less likely to stray astray and find excuses for not being able to adhere to the program!
Although I’ve been very active since I was 50, I found that my body no longer needed high-intensity training, but instead needed low-intensity, low-strength training.
I gave up my running and fitness membership and started doing yoga, pilates, and walking!
I am 100 percent convinced that a healthy diet and regular exercise are the basis for a balanced life.
Self-discipline pays off (conclusion)
When my life is out of whack, I know I lack self-discipline. I’ve learned that self-discipline is one of the best tools to get a grip on things in my life.
Without self-discipline, I waste time, hesitate, and pursue things that I know I should do. As a result, I feel guilty, overwhelmed, and out of order with myself. This is not a great place.
Following these 5 steps to getting my life back was key for me to lead a balanced life where self-discipline and procrastination no longer became major issues to overcome over time.
Living a balanced life is not only critical to your health, happiness, and wellbeing, it is also important to increase your productivity, managing stress, and getting the most out of your life.
So, bring your life back into balance now!