Balance
Balance - an even distribution of weight enabling someone or something to remain upright and steady; a situation in which different elements are equal in or in correct proportions
I believe that in many ways we are all in search of a little more balance really - in all the areas of our life, and so it’s not just work and home life alone, it’s play, nutrition, sport, leisure, and spirituality that we need to make time for. These are shared as well as solitary activities, we have to have a balance of these two too.
Yet balance isn’t easy. It can only become easy with practice and intention. If we always forget ourselves, and put others first, then we’re never going to find that time for our alone time, our leisure time (even if we want to do absolutely nothing sometimes at these times). This is not being selfish, especially if you’re trying to balance everything in your life - which implies that you’re giving time to others. Rather than phrase it negatively, see it this way: to give energy, you have to have the energy to give; and this energy usually comes from time spent alone, with yourself, recharging. You need to make this time a priority.
There are no excuses and no complaints here - only good feelings accepted!
But seriously, with my health coaching clients I try to emphasize the importance of creating a significant trinity. What’s this?
The trinity is made up of your personally 3 most significant areas. If your top priorities are to: get fit, lose weight, focus on career, develop these areas further by asking yourself “How am I going to achieve these goals?”, always aiming to have just 3 items there:
Get fit becomes: training routine - pay attention to mental health - emotional wellbeing too
Lose weight becomes: follow the training routine - eat healthily, so more home cooked meals/ fresh meals - up water intake to 1l a day
Career focus becomes: achieve career goals - get enough rest - inject more fun into every day, for myself and family
Think about each closely; you’ll notice that really even with these 3 simple areas you’re actually affecting each area of a healthy balanced life.
For (1) you have sport involved but to achieve this goal you need to be mentally determined, so there’s mental strength and wellbeing, leisure, discipline and also in many ways spirituality - belief systems. To lose weight (2) you need the sport/movement element (as mentioned in 1) but you also need the right sort of nutrition, you need to plan ahead to prep meals for work or lunch at home so you’re not wasting time away from other important areas, and you also need to see that you’re hydrated. When it comes to career goals (3) - which could also be family goals or the like of course - you need to have a certain focus and know your priorities there, but you also need get enough quality rest and sleep (to have enough energy to spend at work, and when you get back home) as well as having some fun too!
Take the time here to write down your own top 3 priorities. Then further subdivide them into 3, by thinking of how to best achieve these goals. Remember, try to see to it that you’re balancing your needs and wants. You’ll notice you’re on the right track if you have all these areas merging together:
relationships, work, play, nutrition, sleep, spirituality
Contact me if you’d like any help with this or even comment below to share and I’ll give you feedback.
There are always multiple sides from which to see something, a goal or even a situation and the rule of 3 helps you challenge yourself to see at least 3 of those!