5 Strategies for a More Balanced Life
Your time is limited. Don’t waste it trying to do it all, using up your mental, physical and emotional resources, and living with stress. Learning to walk through your life in a more balanced way is fundamental to achieve your goals, and be the person that you want to be.
An initial step has to do with learning to say “no” when someone asks you to make an agreement that compromises your time and throws your expectations off balance. Although it may seem difficult, knowing how to say “no” keeps you more balanced. In fact, it is often the commitments that we feel obligated to make that cause us excess stress.
The following strategies will help you to find a balance, trim your schedule, relieve daily stress, and take control of your own life.
Get rid of the disorder around you
A balanced life is an orderly life. Start by putting your surroundings in order. Eliminate everything superfluous and everything that makes you do extra work. It is much easier to keep a room clean and in order if it only contains the necessities.
Putting your surroundings in order, throwing away the superfluous, and simplifying the decorations, making them functional, will serve as a metaphor. The freedom that you will feel by ordering and simplifying your surroundings is the same that you will feel when you do the same with your life.
Do not make excuses, saying that you do not have help, that nobody else takes care of your surroundings, and that you are tired of always having to do it all yourself. Be an example and make the effort so that it is easier for everyone to maintain order, both on the outside and inside.
Delegate
In your personal life as well as your professional, it is very difficult to maintain control of everything. Wanting to supervise and organize absolutely everything leads to stress and anxiety, especially when others realize that you are taking on all the responsibility.
Trust those around you and delegate part of the responsibilities to them. Tell them what you want and what you expect from them, but give them the freedom to do it as they see fit. In this way, they will be happier to do it. Set your perfectionism aside, be flexible, and praise the work done.
Done is better than perfect
Apply the same rules to yourself. Be flexible and seek to do things as well as possible, setting aside your perfectionism. Try to do your best at all times, but do not keep insisting on doing something a bit better if the way it is done is good enough. Wait for your next opportunity to do it better.
If you can take shortcuts, take them. Taking longer or making life more complicated does not necessarily improve the execution if the results are the same. Identify your priorities and dedicate the bulk of your time to them, looking for the way to do everything else in the easiest way possible.
Live in the present, think of the future
You live your daily life today and you have to plan it to make the most of it. When you put your hands to work, do not forget that tomorrow will be another day and that another will come later, and then another. Planning your daily life well, seeking personal balance, is a habit that provides benefits in the short-, medium-, and long-term.
It is not about sketching a great plan. It is a matter of planning each day, thinking about future goals and the psychological, emotional, and physical consequences of giving it your all. Every decision that you make today will influence what tomorrow is like.
Awaken your inner child
Do you remember when you were a child and you did things just for fun? Not everything we do has to be a mere instrument to obtain external reinforcement, like a title, a job, or an economic remuneration or compensation.
Do things that you simply enjoy. Even if it does not directly improve your economic or work situation, it is going to bring out a positive mood that can spread to other facets of your life.
Having fun, playing, or exploring will help you rest your mind, relieve the daily burden that you carry. This will allow you to come back filled with energy, new ideas, and a fresh mind and spirit.
You are not a machine with a reset button you can use at any time. To “clear your inner cache,” you need to make the decision to dedicate some time to yourself. Draw out your inner child , the one that does things just for fun and that enjoys the simplest and most authentic things in life.