We all get overwhelmed from time to time.
There’s so much to do, ideas to follow up, errands to run, media to consume, work to get done, things to see, places to go, projects to finish, people to see and rooms to tidy.
There’s ‘stuff’ in our lives – and lots of it! Our lives are filled to the brim, bursting at the seams.
It’s not long before our minds feel the same. Before you know it, we feel completely swamped, overwhelmed and find ourselves desperately craving some life balance.
At that point, most people decide they had better improve their time management. They throw themselves into action, trying to force an incredible number of daily tasks into their pre-allocated 24 hour limit. You may have noticed that none us can actually control time, it just tick-tocks away – 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, 60 minutes each hour, 60 seconds each minute. We can’t do anything to stop it, capture it, slow it down and we certainly can’t save it.
When it turns out that time management isn’t the answer, most people look at how else they can improve their work-life balance. “Let’s get these two piles more evenly divided up,” they say.
But Life Balance isn’t about getting the scales, placing ‘life’ on one end and ‘work ’on the other, and then somehow adjusting their amounts until you reach some sort of equilibrium.
‘Work-Life Balance’ doesn’t actually exist. There is no such thing. You see, work and life are both an integral part of you and – if you’re one of the lucky ones – you will love your work just as much as you do the rest of your life. There is no ‘work’ and ‘life’, there is only ‘life’.
Wanting Life Balance is about wanting to FEEL balanced, centered and serene. And that’s exactly why it’s an inside job!
You don’t have to start on the outside, working hard to force some sort of improvement that will make you feel better on the inside.
The easiest and simplest way to start improving your life balance is on the inside – with your innermost thoughts and feelings.
You can choose your thoughts and therefore, you can choose your beliefs. A belief is really just a thought you keep thinking over and over. So start by shifting your thoughts around life balance, which will shift your beliefs about whether or not you have it and ultimately your feelings about it as well.
You can shortcut all of this by going straight to the very core of it. Where you want to finish is actually where you need to start.
Here are 3 simple steps to help you do it:
- Start FEELING better right now by focusing your thoughts on what is working and putting a whole lot less focus on what isn’t working.
- Start by using more helpful words. Your words are really just your thoughts – expressed verbally, right? For example, start saying, “Things are always working out for me” instead of “I’m so snowed under!” Replace “There just aren’t enough hours in the day” with “I always get the important things done.”
- Every single time you complete a task or finish a project, acknowledge yourself and celebrate! Use the affirmations above to continue to reinforce the message.
There are many more steps you can take from here, but this initial simple shift in focus is enough to start a powerful chain reaction towards much better life balance for you.
Try it – you’ll be amazed at the results!
