7 Ways to Maintain Balance in an Unbalanced World

How can smart, busy people maintain balance as they put in long hours to achieve their career goals? Is it alright to live for a time unbalanced while pursuing your goals?

Here are 7 ways to help maintain balance:

Identify your core values, those inner aspects of yourself that mean the most to you. These are the core of who you are; the values that help you identify what you want to be about; your goals and dreams. Share these with your spouse or partner; listen to each other’s dreams, goals, and commitments.
Clarify action steps and a plan. Don’t let life just happen. If you do, your most important dreams (and people) will be pushed out of the way by the “tyranny of the urgent.”
Make choices: What can be adjusted and what is non-negotiable?
Communicate: Be honest with yourself, and those you love. Learn to communicate with the significant people in your life, this means the people at work also, so that they can understand your challenges. No one should have to be a mindreader to understand what’s going on with you.
Listen: “Seek to understand and then to be understood.”
Learn to let go of what isn’t working.
Set boundaries on your time and learn to delegate, especially at work, but also around the house. There are plenty of people willing and able to do some of the “projects” that you have around the house. Find them and hire them!

Just as an airline pilot must adjust his flight plan constantly to arrive at his / her destination; winds shift, weather happens; so it is with life… winds shift and weather happens, learn to adjust and balance. And in answer to that second question, yes, it’s alright to live for a time in “unbalance” as long as you are clear on your objectives, and those you love are on board with your commitments and involved in your decision making process.

Image: istockphoto.com

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