Finding Balance in Your Life
Each day , we are bombarded with thousands of things the need our attention. Between work, school, friends, family, and obligations – we can find ourselves pulled in many directions. While being can busy can be fulfilling - it can also be overwhelming. When we have too much pressure on us , it can be a crushing feeling that makes us feel like a deer in the headlights – frozen.
What is Balance?
With all demands on our attention each day , it is important to find a way to balance all of it out. We hear a lot of talk about “ finding balance” - but what does that actually even mean? – and how in the world do you do it? Balancing simply means that your life is not too overweight in one area. When you focus too much on one part of your life , the others parts suffer – then your obligations with those start to build up - putting more pressure on you to do things that you likely don't have much interest in. Having too much focus on one area can create an imbalance in your life.
For example- I really enjoy using Steemit – but if I spend too much time writing , reading, or curating , the other important things in my life don't get attended to. Therefore it is important that I limit my time on Steemit so that I can take care of other aspects of my life.
Finding balance is easier said than done - chances are that there are some things in our life that we would just prefer not to deal with – but have no choice in the matter – these are the things can put us off balance by either avoidance or by being so bogged down that we never have a chance to do other things – leading again to an imbalance in our lives.
I don't have the answers for how to have a balanced life. What I do have are some ideas and strategies that I have used to try to keep my life aligned with my goals while still finding equilibrium..
Here a few ideas you can try to attempt to gain more balance in your life:
Prioritize your obligations - put together a list of all the things that you do or would like to do in your day to day life. Determine which is the highest priority and list from highest priority to lowest. Doing this helps to bring perspective to your situation and forces you to think about what is really important to you – this alone can be life changing if you've never really thought about it.
Start working on your high priority goals first. This is useful for many reasons - not only do you get one step closer to your goalpost - but you will feel better when you look back at your day and wonder if you accomplished anything - you will know that you have made important strides and that can go a long way in keeping you motivated.
Make a schedule for yourself – a schedule can help you to stay on track and can be a useful guide for letting you know when it is time to change gears. For example , you can set aside an hour in the morning for checking emails , writing a blog post or something to that effect. Then – you could put the next few hours as time for research.
Research is important, but can sometimes feel like more play than work so I feel guilty if I am spending too much time on “research”. Maybe you have a job to get to and that takes a chunk of your day so that is easy to schedule because you have to be there. If you work from home or are self employed, a schedule is a much to help you stay on task. But maybe after work , you set aside time to spend with your family or friends before dinner. The whole point is that if you can make a schedule to help you move on to your next task – you might not get caught up in doing the same thing all the time.Cut loose once in a while – don't take yourself so seriously that you have no time to enjoy life Do things that you enjoy. If you're already doing too much of what you like- find something else that you like and give that a shot - switch things up a little give yourself some variety.
“All work and no play make jack a very dull boy”
Don' t alienate your family and friends – doing so will only isolate you more and can make you feel even more overwhelmed as you see yourself climbing up a steep hill all on your own. You cannot underestimate the support of our family and friends - even if they cannot actually help us – just their encouragement and motivation can help keep us going.
Ditch any bad influences that are holding you back. Perhaps it is friends or family members that are negative about what you do – or it is bad habits that keep you from accomplishing things. If it is family and you cannot remove them - simply remove the negative interaction by not participating in it. Remove yourself from the situation if things start to get negative. It could be booze or drugs – these can hold you back in a big way. You may even need to seek help to break some habits – but could be worth it if it turns your life around and puts you back on track, Maybe some of the websites you look at are full of FUD – whatever the case is – try to identify things in your life that don't move you forward and surgically remove them from your life.
I hope you find this helpful. There are many other things you can do to help bring balance to your life and I'm not going to go into all of them but I think you understand basic gist of what I am saying, which is to look for ways to give attention to the things in your life that matter. Do yourself a favor and make it a great day!
Quote of the day -
“If your too busy to laugh, your too busy”
Please be sure to check out my others articles on real estate, investing , and cryptocurrency ( and some other random dog stuff)
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Great post! That quote is completely on point! When the hubby and I first got together he had a mentality of work, work, work! He lived in California when we met and the cost of living is through the roof. Fast forward to living in Texas, you can get by happily with half as much money. Hes a self contractor so when business got slow he would freak. On the other hand if there were excess of jobs coming through he would gobble them all up, try to make as much as he could. My one quote that I said to him all the time, "Dont work so much you forget to live". You have to take time to enjoy the small things while still taking care of business, otherwise whats the point!
Thank you! - yes... similar situation with my wife and I - a few years back we discussed how we should spend more time creating memories with the family instead of buying things because when we are old and dying , we will not care about any of those things - all we will have is our lives to look back on and I don't want to regret not enjoying life with my family.
Exactly! Enjoy every moment of it, you never know how long we got. Gotta make every moment count! :)
😊👍🙏
This is something I worked on in the last year or so. I had to stop working and stressing so much. Needed to let go and enjoy things more, which I proudly do now. It actually helps a lot in the work aspect.
yes - its something I have always struggled with - sometimes it seems like there are sooo many priorities - it's important to figure out which ones really are top priority ( which is actually simple if we are honest with ourselves)
Great advise, I just wish a schedule was not in the list I tend to go with a schedule for a bit then just revert again in a few days, I will try not to alienate some people though as I think this is something I tend to do quite a bit and it does make you feel like you have nowhere to go but over the edge.
Very insightful... I once tried to use Quicken to manage my time as if it was money because keeping the schedules is a bit of a challenge. But once you start to form habits... Good habits or bad... They tend to become easier and become part of your routine... For Better or For Worse
Clear writing, informative, well laid out, and positive.
I do quite a few of those things. Steemit life is still a little heavy for me. I probably need to cut back.
I do a lot of the things you mentioned already. I did want to say that while I normally will focus on the priorities first (the big rocks), sometimes I like to start with small, easy, unimportant tasks that I can quickly check off. That gives me a sense of accomplishment and helps start the ball rolling for the rest of the day.
Thank you very much for the compliments... It's nice to hear good feedback like that. I like your idea about starting with the easy things first... I've read about that strategy also... And I've tried it myself, but in the end, even though I get more done... I still feel like I have the big things hanging over me... but depending on how I feel for the day I might just justify it by saying at least I got a lot done
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