I hope this title caught your attention. The truth is titles like this are misleading. There is no way to achieve a “perfect” balance. And if someone is telling you this, then be wary of what they may be leaving out of the narrative. Life can be messy and unpredictable, and sometimes we have to prioritize one thing over another even if it’s temporary. Let’s discuss some considerations that may help us lead and more balanced lifestyle.
Planning:
When do you take time to plan out your day? Do you wait until the day of or do you do it the night before, or a whole week in advance? Planning will help mitigate some of the stressors that you may have when attempting to balance all of your priorities. Take the time to plan out your meals, your workout routine, and the important tasks you want done. You can do this verbally by announcing your plans to your loved ones in the home that way you can collaborate and navigate anything that may impede your goal accomplishment, or even work together to get things knocked out easier. Or you can use my favorite method of jotting it all down on a list and marking tasks off for the day as you accomplish them. This helps feed my positive reinforcement monster as well; all the satisfying check marks. But be careful of being too stuck on your plans and allow for flexibility, which leads to my next consideration.
Self-Compassion:
Congratulate yourself for the tasks that you have accomplished and don’t dwell on those that you haven’t.
Each day we are allotted only 24 hours. We sleep for about 6-8 of those hours (if you have a newborn right now, probably a lot less, haha). Then, we spend the rest of that time navigating our family life, meals, workouts, careers, money, school, you name it! It will be nearly impossible to put 110% of effort into all the areas that mean something to you. And there will never be room for a perfect balance of maximum effort.
However, take the time to identify which areas of your life are the highest priority to you and align with your core values.
What are the things that you want or need to get done that will make you feel proud of yourself and accomplished?
Those things that feed into your mental well-being should probably be at the top of your list. Is missing your child’s soccer game worth finishing up a project at work that you have two more days to work on? Consider what it will all feel like at the end and backward plan from there. Be compassionate to yourself for not achieving a perfect balance, but achieving the balance that serves you and those that you care about in the way that you want.
Embrace Change:
This one is tough and a lot of us are resistant to it. Especially when we think we have gotten into a good routine and it gets disrupted by none other than Life.
“All change is hard at first, messy in the middle, and gorgeous at the end” (Robin Sharma).
Once we learn how to roll with the waves of life, we adopt a beautiful trait of resilience. We mold ourselves from these jagged pieces of glass to these beautiful colored pebbles molded by the sea of Life. We are smooth, easygoing, and can navigate through the tough spots without getting stuck by our sharper edges.
Although, there is no such thing as achieving a perfect balance. There are some implements in life that will help us feel closer to it; planning, self-compassion, and embracing change. Let us at BK-HealthandFitness.com help you achieve more balance physically and physiologically.
