9 STRATEGIES TO BRING MORE BALANCE INTO YOUR LIFE

Posted on October 19, 2022 by Harlan Snyder, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.

Life in our society can be very demanding, and sometimes it feels like it’s spinning out of control. But you have control over your choices. You can bring balance into your life if you choose to make it a priority.

It can be easy to spend all day chasing priorities trying to get ahead only to feel defeated at the end of the day because you worked late and skipped dinner with your family, didn’t work out, or didn’t meet friends for a social gathering.

The good news is, re-balancing your life is possible. Read through and try these effective strategies to create balance in your life:

1. Learn to be more patient. Your life might be more balanced than you realize, but it’s hard to see it if you’ve neglected developing this virtue. A lack of patience makes every situation more challenging. Impatience will turn you into an anxious, stressed, and irritable person who sees life through a negative lens. A little patience makes many otherwise challenging situations manageable. Not only for you, but for everyone else, as well.

I grew up with a father who had absolutely NO patience. Not only did it cause people to dislike him, it turned every fun or exciting experience into pure misery. Seriously! It didn’t matter if it was a shopping trip for food or clothes, a family vacation, an outing to a local restaurant, or a project at home. His lack of patience turned it into a disaster. Not only did it destroy his balance, it threw everyone else out of balance as well. Impatience is antithetical to balance…and ultimately has the potential to drive friends, colleagues, and loved ones away…creating even more imbalance and isolation.

2. Simplify. It’s very easy in today’s world to buy more things than you need and take on more responsibilities than you can manage. Every extra item and responsibility in your life can create imbalance. Eliminate the superfluous and bring more harmony into your life.

Consider this — the more you own or the more responsibilities you take on, the more energy, time, money, resources, and skills must be used to manage them. Pretty soon your work, your lifestyle, and your space start to control you instead the opposite. Simplifying literally brings more peace and balance…which equates to more happiness.

3. Give your health a priority. When life gets hectic, our first response is to sacrifice ourselves for everyone and everything else. This is a mistake. Without good health, life becomes very unbalanced.

If you don’t give your health the priority it deserves, your resulting bad health will eventually get your full attention. In other words, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

4. Create a schedule that includes downtime. Downtime isn’t just the time that’s left over after your responsibilities are completed. Downtime is something you do on purpose. Plan for it. Make time for it. Knowing you have a break scheduled in the near future will motivate you to spend your time more effectively. Your downtime keeps you balanced, productive, and sharp.

5. Get started early. For many people, it’s challenging to start the day and even more common to procrastinate. Time is such a valuable resource! Once you fall behind, the entire day is out of balance.

If mornings are problematic, consider developing a morning mindset ritual that sets your mood toward success. If you’re not sure what that might look like, consider a gratitude practice, a meditation, or mindfulness activity. It will help you get started on your day with a purpose and the rest will fall into place.

6. Spend time on the activities that mean the most to you. Your family is likely a priority, but what else do you find meaningful? Hiking? Playing the violin? Reading? Working isn’t the only priority in life. The more time you’re able to spend on enjoyable activities, the more you’ll enjoy your life.

7. Spend time on your relationships. This includes, but isn’t limited to, your romantic relationships. Keep up with your friends and extended family, too. It takes time, but consider how much time you’re spending on social media, the internet, or the television that could be devoted to building deeper relationships.

Spending time on your relationships also includes one of the most important relationships you can have…your relationship with yourself! Don’t neglect your own need for down time, self-care, and personal growth. Self-awareness and self-evaluation are critical to develop a well-balanced life.

8. Get enough sleep. Do you sleep less than seven hours each night? Even if you’re highly successful, you could be doing even better. Studies have shown that performance increases for many tasks, both physical and mental, when subjects receive at least seven hours of sleep.

If you don’t have time for seven hours, it’s time to reexamine your priorities. More than likely there’s too much on your plate and when that plate falls, it’s going to create a huge mess. We’re talking burnout, scorched relationships, regret, health issues, and more.

9. Make yourself your biggest priority. When you take good care of yourself, you can take better care of others. When you’re at your best, your performance at work is at its highest. It might seem selfish to prioritize your own needs and happiness, but everyone in your life will benefit from this mindset.

Define what having a “balanced life” means to you. Balancing your life will be impossible until you clarify what balance means to you. How much time would you spend at work? How much time would you spend at home? How many leisure hours do you need each week? How would you spend those hours? Create a well-balanced life by choosing your priorities wisely.

If you need help creating balance, don’t be afraid to reach out and seek help from others. As a Success Coach, I’m happy to help you create more balance and freedom so you can enjoy life to the fullest. I’ll help you prioritize you values. When you’re clear about your core values, it’s easy to create concrete strategies to help you achieve and remain balanced so you can stop surviving and start thriving.