Is Your Life a Balancing Act or In Balance?

I recently met some new colleagues at a live event, and many of them were healers and practitioners of healing methods. Not my usual crowd, so I took the opportunity to learn something!

We were taught at the event we were attending, that it was important to focus on your feelings, your thoughts and your mindset. It is an important part of life, of course, but it’s also important in your business.

While I consider myself to be a good decision maker, sometimes I probably am a little hasty in deciding something, simply to get it done.

I enjoyed taking the time to address how I felt about the things I was thinking, and to spend a little time acknowledging those feelings. It slowed me down. It made me think. It made me reflect on whether the choice I was making was right … and right for me.

I have continued to step back and look at my business decisions in the same way since I returned from that event. I thought I would share a few of my thoughts on this with you:

Are you balancing everything in your life with ease and grace? Okay maybe not graceful all the time – but with ease? I like to think that by scheduling things and being prepared, that I have covered all the bases. But sometimes balance isn’t the thing to achieve. Tip: Look at your task list every day – and really consider if you need to do everything on it. Try to remove one or two things you have on the list, and buy back that time for yourself.

Are you saying yes when you really want to say no? This is a an easy one to realize – when it’s too late.  If you give yourself a moment to really consider how much time/effort/money or whatever saying yes will require on your part, you may realize that the right answer is actually no. Tip: Give yourself the ability to say no when an opportunity arises. When the question comes up, allow yourself to realize that it’s okay to say no.

Is your schedule too rigid or too full? If something happens that is not on your calendar, does it throw off your whole day? Do you feel more anxious as a result of having to squeeze in something new? Maybe you aren’t giving yourself enough downtime. Tip: Back to back phone calls are never a good idea. If you can schedule yourself a few minutes in between to collect your thoughts and process what happened on the call you just finished, you will be in a better place to serve everyone better, including yourself.

Do you take time to care for yourself? Many support professionals are so busy pleasing everyone else, and handling it all, that they put themselves last on the list.  Taking time for yourself doesn’t have to be a whole day or afternoon or even an hour. You can sit out on the front porch with a cup of tea for 15 minutes, and that can give you enough of a break to focus on your own self, which is the core of your business. Tip: Assess what you have done for yourself lately, and plan to do something. Especially in the summer when the kids are home and life gets busy, don’t forget about caring for yourself!

In order to achieve a life in balance, it’s important to address how you are coming at everything you do. If you are running to keep up, it’s probably time to slow down.

Take a few extra moments to consider the decisions you are making – and you may find that you are deciding something completely different – and that’s a good thing!

I’d love to hear your comments on this article – please visit my blog to leave yours!