"Balance is a feeling derived from being whole and complete; it's a sense of harmony. It is essential to maintaining quality in life and work" - Daniel Smith, Banned Subconscious Mind Secret
"Balance isn't something you achieve "someday"."
"Self-care is, fundamentally, about bringing balance back to a life that has grown imbalanced from too many commitments or responsibilities." - Robyn L. Gobin
Balance has been a hot word for many years now. Achieving a work-life balance it sort of the "gold standard" for a lot of busy women. If only you could figure out how to balance everything you have on your plate, you'd be happy - right? It seems like it's this constant struggle in finding something that actually rarely ever gets achieved.
A big part of this is because that we forget the basic principles of a scale.
Let's say your current life looks a little bit like this...
And you want it to look like this...
Then you're not alone. What we tend to forget is that in order to achieve the balance we desire, we can't just put the same amount of hours into our life, as we do our work. That would look something like this...
Yes, the effort is there, you're not falling deeper into imbalances, but you're also not fixing them. Imagine you broke your left wrist and it was in a cast for 4 weeks. When you take your cast off, you're trying to build back up the strength (or correct the imbalance) so it can match your right wrist. You're not going to do equal reps at equal weight. You're going to do more reps on the left.
I feel like I'm sort of mansplaining what "balance" means to you. And I'm aware it might come across that way, but the importance of this needs to be brought to the front of our minds again and again because we continue to fail in achieving the work/life balance we all want.
In order for us to achieve that, our efforts need to look a little something like this...
We need to recognize that something's gotta give, and we have to put more effort into the area that is lacking than the area that is taking over.
Here are 4 Tips to Increase Effort in our Health, Fitness, and Nutrition For Better Work-Life Balance:
1: Set a time to stop work.
The days of spending 12+ hours in front of your computer are over. It's time to set an alarm for you to stop work. Take it a step further and plan an activity that you're going to look forward to at the end of each workday. That way you're not tempted to get back to work because you "have nothing else to do"
2: Take regular movement breaks.
Your body is suffering from the amount of time you spend sitting. Each hour, get up and walk for 5-15 minutes.
3: Spend 1 dedicated hour to physical activity 3-5 times a week. These are 3-5 extra hours a week that you are putting in your "life" bank. Don't overthink this hour! Get your heart rate up, lift some weights, burn off some steam. (Check out our beginner’s guide to hitting the gym here!)
3: Keep your blood sugar low by eating lots of veggies.
Mental clarity and productivity should be one of your top priorities if you're looking for some balance. Why? Because then you can get the same amount of work down in way less time! More time for LIFE! Processed food and high sugar foods have been linked to brain fog. Don't take my word for it! Just go a couple of days with no sugar or processed foods, focus on whole foods and lots of veggies and see how you feel!
4: Sleep more.
This is literal hours being put into you creating balance. Aim for 7-8 hours of quality sleep each night. Check out our article on Sleep and Productivity here!
Now, the great thing about a scale is that once you achieve balance, it takes less effort to maintain it. You just need to get there. I challenge you to take the next year of your life and start putting more of your efforts into creating a balanced life that's conducive to personal AND career growth.
Do you think you'd be a fit for our program? Let's find out!
