6 Tips for a Balanced Life

Living a balanced life is important, I understand that. I also understand the concept of balanced living. However, with so much going on around us and the additional pressures of keeping life moving forward, sometimes takes all I have energy. Like many, I too am working from home (never truly leaving my place of work), I also run my own business from home, managing home schooling, keeping contact with friends and family, as well as running the home as usual. You could say that many of us are holding down the equivalent of three or four jobs, all day, every day.

So, for me balanced living has to be a practical matter, where I am able to focus on staying balanced for me, my family, my friends and clients, and at the same time delivering on the promises I’ve made. With this in mind, here are my tips for managing a balanced life in 2021.

1. Nourish and nurture yourself

When you are feeling unhealthy or under the weather, it is difficult to accomplish anything, let alone supporting others. Equally, when you are overworked or “busy”, you can start to form unhealthy habits like eating the wrong foods, or doing less exercise. This way of managing life may carry you for some time and at a certain level of functionality. However, at some point this approach to life will catch up with you and can potentially leave you with burnout.

It is important to include time in your daily and weekly routine for yourself, doing activities that you enjoy and help you re-charge. Whatever the activity is and it is different for all of us, the point is to allow your body and mind time and space to relax and step out of life for just a little while.

2. Let go of perfection

Many people strive to be excellent or fabulous, even when they have been working all day and need to go home, or when they know that they are letting others down for not being somewhere promised, because they have not achieved perfection. For others, in trying to achieve perfection, they may even miss bigger, more important things happening in their lives.

For those who are perfectionists, is there anyone else in your world that can do a job better than you? If your answer is no, then I ask, if there is no one else who can do the job better than you, how will you fit all the jobs / tasks in to one day?

Sometimes, if you are feeling overwhelmed, overworked or are putting extra pressure on yourself to be perfect, then you need to openly tell yourself, “the job you’ve done may not be perfect, and that it is “good enough”. This is about not putting more pressure on yourself, when you already have so much to do. If someone else can do some of the tasks for you, let them and give them space to do them well! The only question to really satisfy is “is your effort good enough?”.

3. Understand your true priorities and stay realistic

Living a balanced life does not mean that you try and cram everything you need to do and everything you would like to do into each day. We all have 101 things to do on a daily basis and all of the things on our ‘to do list’ are important to some degree and to someone. Depending on where you are in your life right now, your priorities, focus and energy will be different.

Juggling too many priorities in one go can become overwhelming, as you try to complete all the tasks required for all of your projects, at the same time. Taking too much on, in trying to create ‘a life balanced’ could bring more stress, anxiety and a sense of pressure into your life.

In understanding this, it’s good to actively work on prioritising your tasks, as a way of managing yourself rather than managing the ‘to do list’. Make sure that you only work on projects and tasks that are most relevant and important to your life. In doing this, you can realistically make promises to others that you know you can deliver on time, to a high standard and in a way that means you can stay in a state of balance.

4. Remove my internal noise (chatter)

For many of us, we are busy and distracted for most of our days. It is rare for us to focus on a sense of purpose and calm in everyday life. On top of that, we are constantly bombarded with information and messages through social media, email, online searching and through other activities that engage with others. We receive thousands of messages each day, consciously and sub-consciously.

I’ve recently come across a term called “monkey mind” which refers to our minds swinging from one branch to another, jumping around from one subject to another without stopping to review and reflect. As our minds swing from branch to branch, creating non-stop internal chatter that can keep us busy, occupied with our own internal noise. This internal noise can leave us feeling stressed and unfocussed, taking us away from what we are doing in the moment.

The more you can work on quieting your internal chatter, the more likely you are to find moments of peace and a place to rest and refresh yourself. There are many ways to reduce your internal chatter with online resources or you can seek guided support through RPB Coaching, www.rpbcoaching.com .

5. Unplug from work and digital space – regularly

In our world of constant hum and digital input, it is harder than we realise to simply switch our devices off. Coupled with the sense of missing out on that notification, or that post that everyone’s going to be talking about on Monday or that amazing opportunity that hasn’t turned up yet, switching off has become unnatural, a strange behaviour.

As a way of taking back time to enjoy your life and relax, try switching your devices off for one day each week. If you try this tip, I welcome your feedback, at hello@rpbcoaching.com .

6. Expect the unexpected

The world we live in is full of surprises and changes, almost at every turn. ‘The unexpected’ is for all of us, a certainty. If it’s not us, it’s an external force that impacts on our lives. The result is the same, the unexpected has happened.

In reference to the small things, like lagging computers (a reality for many of us at the moment), late deliveries, an unwell child, a flat tyre or the queue at the food shop, these things happen all the time. Whether we have planned for it or not, we all experience the unexpected.

In allowing these ‘minor’ unexcepted moments to upset us, we could lose focus on our goal or purpose for that day or week, we could let that moment throw us off our stride. If we are able to accept these minor, unexpected events that occur, we can stay focussed, remain mindful and maintain our internal equilibrium.

This is not to say that we can maintain a balanced approach to life, at all times. Life happens and there are times when your immediate and undivided attention is required. When these moments occur, we have to re-focus our time and energy. When you are able to return to your usual self, take time to refresh and rejuvenate yourself.

I hope that the above tips help you to find balance, at a time when there is so much pull on our time, our focus and on our attention.

If there is anything above that you would like to explore further, please do contact me at hello@rpbcoaching.com , as I am happy to hear from you.