In my last post ‘Busyness Versus Work Life Balance’ I talked about the fact that we seem to have established a culture of ‘busy is best’. As a Mum of two boys and owner of a small business I’ve redefined what success means to me.
For me Success = Balance.
Am I making sacrifices to achieve balance? It doesn’t feel that way. Since I made the choice between busy and balance 85 days ago, I also began practising daily gratitude. The results have been a revelation. The more I’m grateful for what I have, the more I realise I already have, and the less I need to have more. By living in a state of gratitude and balance, I’ve achieved everything I want. And, yes I still have dreams. Dreams keep me focused and moving forward, and they are fun. That’s the other thing about shifting the parameters of success. I get to have way more fun!
Six Steps on How to Achieve Life Balance When Busyness is King:
Step 1:
Write down everything you do in a typical week then ask yourself ‘do these things add to my energy or deplete it?’ You could put a plus or a minus sign next to each one, or change the font colour to red and green. Whatever makes it easy for you to see how much of your time goes on things that make you feel good, versus things that drain you.
Hint: Doing something because you ‘should’ will rarely add to your energy, and will more than likely deplete it.
Step 2:
Get clear about what a balanced life would look like to you and take 15 minutes to write down your ideal week. Include everything you would love to do, and don’t add what you don’t want to do. If you think that would be impossible to achieve, ask yourself ‘What’s the risk to me of not achieving more balance in my life?”
Step 3:
Go back to your typical week list. How well does it serve you? If you need to, start making some new choices.
Step 4:
Begin shaping your actual week based on your conclusions from your ideal week. You might find you need to phase some things out over time rather than cut them straight out. You may decide you need some help. Become more aware of the choices you’ve been making and whether your time and energy could be better served in different ways. Go ahead, get creative as you think of new ways to do things!
Step 5:
Learn how to create boundaries and be more assertive. I found that once I got clear about my priorities, the assertiveness kicked in because I was keen to protect them. If you need a little extra help finding ways to say no and stick with it, please get in touch.
Step 6:
Practice daily gratitude. We get what we think about most. If you practice the art of gratitude, your attention will be focused on what you love. We all have something. If it seems challenging to think of anything focus on the really small stuff, like the smell of clean sheets when you wake up in the morning, or the pillow you lay your head on every night. Once your brain has got used to focusing on the positives that already exist in your life, you will start attracting more of what you want. Its happened to me, and it can happen to you!
If you’d like some helping working out what your ideal week looks like, or you’re having trouble shaping your current to do list into one you’d prefer to have then please contact me to arrange a clarity session and I’ll happily spend an hour either face to face or over telephone or skype working with you to help you achieve more of what you want.
Sandra