These days, you hear a lot about living a “balanced life.” But is true balance even attainable?
We often become so stressed with the day to day… with our career, housework, family, friends, self-care… it’s enough to lead to serious burnout if we allow it to.
So what does balance actually mean and is it really that realistic?
Dislike of the Life Wheel
When Rich and I went to our first event together, I was introduced to The Life Wheel.
I thought it was so cool at first. You’ve got these different sections, or pies, and you get to rate things and see how balanced or out of balance your life is.
Then I remember thinking I was always going to have a flat wheel, and it felt deflating and demoralizing.
The concept of being able to see where you are at was great, but there had to be a better way.
Lifestyle Dashboard
It was time to design something different. We call it the Design Your Best Life 12 Month Plan.
One day I had this instantaneous download and started typing furiously, coming up with 50 questions to assess scores in all different areas of our lives that we want to be intentional in.
They have a number point value assigned to them and each area is then colored green, yellow, or red so you can glance at it and see where you are at in any given moment and what you need to focus on.
Then the goal is to increase the point values. Green means what you are doing is working and you need to keep doing that. Yellow or red means it’s time to move the needle whether it’s by RSA (Real Small Actions) or by TAN (Taking Action Now!)
In his Autobiography, this is how Ben Franklin says he approached life, focusing on one area at a time.
While you, like many who are focused on personal growth, may want to fix it all, it makes sense in the growth journey to go from x to y and measure your progress. It’s a scale to measure how you are doing in life so you can see if you really are living your best life and recognize where your attention and intention need to be.
Celebrating Wins
This makes it easier to recognize and therefore celebrate your wins. You can actually see the numbers change and even the colors go from red to yellow, or yellow to green, and that is certainly something to be celebrated!
I feel it’s even more important than achieving “balance.” I don’t really buy into the whole balance thing. I feel that there are Seasons where we focus on what it is we need to work on most at that particular time.
For a while, health was my number one focus, so it was very disproportionate to the other focuses in my life. Once I managed to get that number where I wanted it to be, I was then able to dive into another area of my life. I believe that shifting focus is important based on where I currently am in my life, and I like to go all in, in that certain area.
It’s all about the sprint- focused and intentional action, following by downtime to recharge and replenish.
Our Inner Circle Members know this. After seeing numerous mentors always “go go go,” we don’t want to give our community the impression that it’s always about the hustle and the grind. Too much of that is a recipe for burnout, resentment, sickness and meltdown.
Even when you love what you do, it’s important that after the sprint and the season, you make room for quality time. Self-care is crucial to your energy and your creativity.
Base it on Your Situation
Perhaps you work a job with regular hours and can go all in work-mode during those hours, then can replenish and have down time once you clock out. Maybe you’re like us and own a business that requires the long hours and sprints, then after that season has passed you can take a longer time for vacation or family or self care.
Depending on what works for you, carve out the time to focus on what you need to focus on and then charge your batteries. Shift focus when needed and celebrate in the way that works best for you.
Gifts to Help You
Designing your best life is like building a house, you need to start with a blueprint. You have to know where you are starting from.
This is why we are giving you your own Design Your Best Life 12 Month Plan, so you can see where you are, take the focused action steps, do an inventory whenever needed, and recognize your milestones as the numbers and colors change.
In addition, you can download the Inaugural Edition of the Design Your Best Life Magazine! It’s filled with tools and strategies to help you on your journey of designing your best life.
Additional Resources
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