7 Ways You Can Start Balancing Your Life
7 Ways You Can Start Balancing Your Life
Do you realize what you're doing? You're defining who you are by what you do. And if you've reached the point that you're sick and tired of it, then this article was written for you.
Why is defining yourself by your work bad? Everyone needs a purpose in life, right? Sure you do...but the danger in defining yourself by externals--like what you do--is that things can suddenly change, leaving you undefined, much like division by zero.What happens if...
* You define yourself as an old-fashioned company man...and you get laid off?
* You think of yourself as "the TV repair guru", but then everyone starts buying High-Definition TV's that you can't fix?
* You define yourself as the owner of a local magazine...and the local economy goes south, advertising dries up, and you go bankrupt
Another danger of defining yourself by what you do is that you will most likely end up overworking yourself to the point of illness to achieve goals that get higher and higher each year.
Start defining yourself as you are, not by what you do. Consider what's most important to you - your values and your beliefs. Focus on them and take action to achieve a life around them.
Try these 7 suggestions for balancing your life and defining who you are:
1. Take 30 minutes to sit down with a pen and a pad of paper, and write down what your ideal life would look like. Where would you live? How would you make money? What would a typical workday be like? What would your life look like if you created more time?
2. Think about what your work-life combination would look like if it were up to you...and then realize that is up to you. Don't buy into anyone else's definition. Companies always want more of your time, and you always want to hold back so that you have some left for yourself and your family. Remember this: you have the ultimate say in what work-life balance means to you. The good news is that life comes first for more and more people nowadays. We want life balance and we have the resources to achieve it. Think about the resources you have available and write them down.
3. Spend a few moments each day in quiet reflection. Take a look around you and within yourself. Regularly reassess your goals and priorities. Write them down. You have tremendous pressure on you to constantly better yourself and to want it all and do it all. This pressure exists in your work, your community, your family, and with your friends and associates – and most especially in your mind. Take time to consider how you have responded to those expectations.
4. The skills that get you ahead in business may not work in your personal relationships, but the time and effort needed is just as important. Don't assume that managing your private time and family life will be easy. Sure, you've got good professional skills and training, but that doesn't necessarily translate to being a good spouse and parent without thinking about it or developing the necessary skills. Relationships are like work problems in that they take time, enthusiasm, and imagination to nurture. Take the time and effort to identify life's opportunities and pleasures so that you can enjoy them.
5. Make use of technology that allows you to conduct business on your own schedule without becoming a slave to it. Self-serve websites and phone-activated systems like voicemail that will let you run your business on your own schedules are an absolute must. This will allow you to be more productive and mentally present at work so that you can make the most of your private time. For instance, when you know that potential clients can leave a detailed message, or that they can check a site you've set up and read the Frequently Asked Questions, you won't worry so much about taking time for yourself.
6. Start drawing general boundaries, such as:
• "I don't work on my kids' birthdays"
• "I don't work on Christmas or other major holidays"
• "I don't work on Sundays"
Schedule your personal and family time just like you would your business appointments. That means putting a note in your Blackberry for "6am--Treadmill for 20 minutes", or "7pm--Dinner at Uptown Blanco with wife", or "3pm Saturday--Brittany's soccer match."
7. Be authentic – be yourself.
Work-life balance is a process, not an outcome. It changes constantly, particularly at different points in your life. Wherever you are today is all right. Don't beat yourself up. Accept yourself and learn and grow from where you are. There's nothing wrong with aspiring to live a balanced life. If your goal is constant balance and happiness, however, you'll be disappointed. Life happens – be flexible. Your true objective should be to inspire personal growth and positive change, moving you closer to what you want. If your aspiration is learning and growth and positive change, then you'll be just fine.
Copyright 2007 David B. Bohl, REFLECTIONS Coaching LLC. All rights reserved.
7 Ways You Can Start Balancing Your Life - To learn more about this author, visit David Bohl's Website.
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When you go to parties, do you start talking business with new people before you even exchange names? Or perhaps you refer to yourself as "Mike--the insurance guy," or "Sue--the medical billing person."
Do you realize what you're doing? You're defining who you are by what you do. And if you've reached the point that you're sick and tired of it, then this article was written for you.
Why is defining yourself by your work bad? Everyone needs a purpose in life, right? Sure you do...but the danger in defining yourself by externals--like what you do--is that things can suddenly change, leaving you undefined, much like division by zero.What happens if...
* You define yourself as an old-fashioned company man...and you get laid off?
* You think of yourself as "the TV repair guru", but then everyone starts buying High-Definition TV's that you can't fix?
* You define yourself as the owner of a local magazine...and the local economy goes south, advertising dries up, and you go bankrupt
Another danger of defining yourself by what you do is that you will most likely end up overworking yourself to the point of illness to achieve goals that get higher and higher each year.
Start defining yourself as you are, not by what you do. Consider what's most important to you - your values and your beliefs. Focus on them and take action to achieve a life around them.
Try these 7 suggestions for balancing your life and defining who you are:
1. Take 30 minutes to sit down with a pen and a pad of paper, and write down what your ideal life would look like. Where would you live? How would you make money? What would a typical workday be like? What would your life look like if you created more time?
2. Think about what your work-life combination would look like if it were up to you...and then realize that is up to you. Don't buy into anyone else's definition. Companies always want more of your time, and you always want to hold back so that you have some left for yourself and your family. Remember this: you have the ultimate say in what work-life balance means to you. The good news is that life comes first for more and more people nowadays. We want life balance and we have the resources to achieve it. Think about the resources you have available and write them down.
3. Spend a few moments each day in quiet reflection. Take a look around you and within yourself. Regularly reassess your goals and priorities. Write them down. You have tremendous pressure on you to constantly better yourself and to want it all and do it all. This pressure exists in your work, your community, your family, and with your friends and associates – and most especially in your mind. Take time to consider how you have responded to those expectations.
4. The skills that get you ahead in business may not work in your personal relationships, but the time and effort needed is just as important. Don't assume that managing your private time and family life will be easy. Sure, you've got good professional skills and training, but that doesn't necessarily translate to being a good spouse and parent without thinking about it or developing the necessary skills. Relationships are like work problems in that they take time, enthusiasm, and imagination to nurture. Take the time and effort to identify life's opportunities and pleasures so that you can enjoy them.
5. Make use of technology that allows you to conduct business on your own schedule without becoming a slave to it. Self-serve websites and phone-activated systems like voicemail that will let you run your business on your own schedules are an absolute must. This will allow you to be more productive and mentally present at work so that you can make the most of your private time. For instance, when you know that potential clients can leave a detailed message, or that they can check a site you've set up and read the Frequently Asked Questions, you won't worry so much about taking time for yourself.
6. Start drawing general boundaries, such as:
• "I don't work on my kids' birthdays"
• "I don't work on Christmas or other major holidays"
• "I don't work on Sundays"
Schedule your personal and family time just like you would your business appointments. That means putting a note in your Blackberry for "6am--Treadmill for 20 minutes", or "7pm--Dinner at Uptown Blanco with wife", or "3pm Saturday--Brittany's soccer match."
7. Be authentic – be yourself.
Work-life balance is a process, not an outcome. It changes constantly, particularly at different points in your life. Wherever you are today is all right. Don't beat yourself up. Accept yourself and learn and grow from where you are. There's nothing wrong with aspiring to live a balanced life. If your goal is constant balance and happiness, however, you'll be disappointed. Life happens – be flexible. Your true objective should be to inspire personal growth and positive change, moving you closer to what you want. If your aspiration is learning and growth and positive change, then you'll be just fine.
Copyright 2007 David B. Bohl, REFLECTIONS Coaching LLC. All rights reserved.
7 Ways You Can Start Balancing Your Life - To learn more about this author, visit David Bohl's Website.
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
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Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
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Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
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Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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