As an entrepreneur, it can be easy to get caught up in the day-to-day stresses of your business. Though, I recognize this is a common issue for pretty much everyone. Not just business owners.
Balancing the demands of your personal life, family expectations, and work (or your business) can be a challenge, but it’s important to find ways to manage stress.
The Benefits of Balance
On an intellectual level, we understand that finding balance in life is crucial for happiness and success.
When you have a balanced life, you are able to better focus on your goals and priorities. You have time for work, time for family, time for friends, and time for yourself.
Balance means everything is in moderation and you don’t feel overwhelmed or stressed.
Here are some of the benefits of balance:
- You are more productive and efficient.
- You have more energy and enthusiasm to follow your passions.
- You’re able to better manage stress.
- You’re also able to maintain healthier relationships.
How to Achieve Balance in Your Life
There are countless articles and blog posts on the internet that promise to teach you how to achieve balance in your life. However, many of them only offer generic and unhelpful advice. Achieving balance is a personal process that requires time, effort, and experimentation. To help you successfully implement changes in your life to create balance, here are three tips to help you.
Tips for Finding Balance
According to psychotherapist Paul Sheesley, here are three tips to help you find balance in your life:
1. Ditch bad habits.
One of the most common New Year’s resolutions is to find balance in life. This often includes ditching bad habits and establishing new, healthy ones. However, this can be easier said than done. But it doesn’t have to be this way. By ditching our bad habits, we can create more balance in our lives and find more time for the things that matter most to us.
It can be tough to find balance in our lives. Between work, family, and social obligations, it seems like we never have enough time for ourselves. This can lead to a lot of bad habits, like overworking, over-eating, and over-indulging in other activities.
To help you identify bad habits to ditch, consider making a list of the habits you’d like to break and why. This will help you stay motivated when times get tough. Then, to successfully ditch that habit, you will want to be sure to replace the old habit with a new one. For example, if you normally drink alcohol every night, try substituting that with a mocktail, decaf tea, or water.
2. Baby steps.
There is no one-size-fits-all answer to the question of how to achieve balance in life. And, there is no one right way to do so. However, by taking baby steps it can help get you started on the right track.
Once you have created a list of habits you’d like to ditch, it is important to become aware of your default tendencies and patterns. You can do this by paying attention to the things you do on a daily basis.
To help you create an objective overview, it may be helpful to carry a small notebook with you and write down what you do each hour. Were there any tendencies that caught you by surprise? Did you stop scrolling through social media because you were about to write it down for the second hour in a row?
Once you know what you’re dealing with, you can begin to make small changes that will have a big impact down the road. Be sure to maintain flexibility and willingness to change your plans when necessary. The habits we plan in our minds don’t always work out in real life application.
Remember, don’t try to do too much at once – start small and gradually increase the difficulty level as you get used to the new habit and as you gain confidence.
3. Confide in someone.
There are times in everyone’s life when things feel a bit out of control, especially when we are trying to change our behaviors. It’s helpful to have someone to talk to who can help. Sometimes, all you need is someone to lend an ear and offer some support. This allows us to share our thoughts and feelings so we can process them. It also allows us to gain a different perspective on things. We are often too close to the problem to be able to see what is actually happening because it is clouded by our emotions.
Friends and family who are trustworthy and supportive can provide support to help you live a healthy, happy, and balanced life.
Balance is Key
It can be tough to find balance in our lives, especially when it seems like there are always more things to do than time to do them. But it’s important to make time for the things that are important to us, whether that means relaxing at home or spending time with loved ones.
Take a few moments today to think about where you are currently in life and where you’d like to be in the future. Then, consider how you can create balance between the two. Take it slow and allow yourself grace in the process.
You’ve got this!
