These days, everything is hectic. Between the demands of work, personal relationships, and the desire to spend time on hobbies, aspirations, and dreams, it’s hard to find the time to get anything right. Trying to do everything leaves you vulnerable to continually feeling disappointed (in yourself) for not doing better. We are often even attacked by the feeling of guilt for not spending enough time with our families because of the demands of work. If this feels all too familiar, you’re not alone. As I said, things can sometimes be too chaotic to process, and it’s undeniably leaving a mark on everyone involved.
Create Your Own Balance
So what is the solution to all this? It has everything to do with having balance in your life. The balance between meeting responsibilities and doing the things you want to do. But how can we get there? Here we intend to outline how you can find the wisdom behind balance, by going through these steps.
- Make A Crude Assessment
Well, for starters, you need to be honest with yourself about where you are. What have you been focusing on, or maybe even where have you strayed off to? Sometimes, it is possible to get off track with life situations that come up and somehow take over our time, focus, and energy. All of the sudden we may realize that we are not where we intended to be. So, we need to be real with ourselves about the place we are at before we can make a plan to get where we are going.
- Define Your Priorities
The number one thing you can do to help improve your work-life balance is to define the things that are important to you. What are those things that bring you peace of mind and that without them you lie awake at night wishing for? For most of us the macro priorities are things like:
- Family
- Health
- Economic Stability
- Education / Personal Development
- Leisure time to pursue the things you love.
The order might change, or you may add or take away a couple but, most of us are looking for similar things. What’s important here is that you have a very apparent list of absolute priorities. But, it doesn’t end there. We’ll get back to this point, later on.
- Define Your Goals
So, outside of the things we all have in common, as mentioned above, we have a specific set of dreams that are unique to us. They are based on our experiences and personalities. We may want to learn languages, travel to other countries, learn about a specific topic because it is of interest to us. Whatever the goal; write it down and place it everywhere around your home. Put it in your agenda, phone, on a sticky note, etc., so you will see them many times throughout the day.
- Go In Detail For Each Goal
It is about moving from general to specific. Don’t say, “I want a better job.” “I want to make more money.” “I want to lose weight.” “I want to be smarter.” It is all about being specific; if you want to have a better job you need to ask and answer questions like, “What job do I want?” “How many hours do I want to work?” “How much do I want to get paid?” When working toward a goal, you will need to have a clearly defined image, with specifics, with numbers, titles, and yes, times associated with them. It doesn’t mean that you are crushed if you are not where you want to be at the end of the time you set. It says that you know where you want to be in one, two, three years from now. And what is most important is working actively toward those things as you go through everyday life. It brings us to our next point.
- Time Management
Ok, so now you know where you are, what your priorities are, and you have defined each goal in detail. Next, you will have to get your hands dirty. It is where you act on these goals you say you want to achieve. It is where most people start giving up; so you need to decide now if you’re going to be like all the rest.
Time management is about separating time to work on the things you have set as priorities. You probably think that you don’t have any time. The thing is, we all have 24 hours each day, we use it for different things. You will need to adjust, prioritize and completely cut out things that are standing in the way of you getting to be where you want to be. So, list things you can cut out: TV, social media, shopping, chit-chat, etc. Sometimes we are unaware of the things that take up our time. So, here we will also have to make a crude assessment.
Start with listing the things you entirely cannot avoid doing, like getting ready for work, commute time, meals, time at work, chores like taking kids to and from school, etc. The time you have left will be the time you can dedicate to pursuing your goals.
- Integrate Existing Time
Here is where we get creative. Maybe you have cut out the things you can live without, but still, don’t have enough time to work on the things you want. Then we will need to multitask. It means while you are driving, you are listening to an audiobook. Instead of going out to lunch with coworkers, you get your food sent to the office and watch a video on the subject you want to learn. As you get ready in the morning, you are learning about another culture through video or podcast. Sounds silly, but these habits will get you closer to where you want to be, and this will add to having the right type of balance you are searching for.
- Investing In Others
How about doing something positive for the good of humankind? Donate your time to a charity, invest in someone’s life by mentoring them, or share the knowledge your career has provided you with over the years. It is a great way to put your spin on things and creating a balance in your life, doing something for others has a way of positively affecting you and the people around you. Plus, you will be much surprised at what you can learn from being around other people. They have different life experiences than you and everyone has something to offer.
- Go Into Business For Yourself
An even better idea is to change your path completely, making a bold, drastic change in your life. For most of us, this is a considerable risk. But what if you can do it progressively? One of many options is doing online trading for yourself from your home or office. It is something you can do according to your schedule, and it will give you the time that you so desperately desire. The change will impact your entire family and will allow you the flexibility to do the things you love and care about.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this article has shown you different ways we can add balance to our lives by knowing where we are, knowing what we want, and by working toward achieving our goals on a daily basis. If you are looking for an immediate change, visit Live Traders to learn about online trading and how it can impact your life.
