Blog Post by Carl Pate
Gaining Balance in your life is an Art, not a Science. If your health is good, you are not focusing on your kids…. If your family life is good, your business is suffering…. If your business is on the up, you may be stressed out of your mind. These are problems the world over, not just for you. So you need to get focused on what is IMPORTANT to you and work on bringing those things together.
More than Work-Life Balance
Everything is important but some things are more important than others. Work-Life Balance is just not enough today. You need to create balance across the inter-relationship of all of the different areas of your life.
Life can often seem very overwhelming but it is possible to chunk pretty much everything that you have to focus on into these six categories. This makes it much easier to get your arms around. You can then break these areas into sub-categories, which is where we start to get into the art of life management. Further, what might feel like balance to you may be exactly the opposite for someone else. And what may feel in balance today may be very different in 6 month’s time.
Focus takes you out of Balance
There is, however, much more to the principle of balance than this. We cannot expect everything in our lives to be perfectly aligned all of the time and neither do we want it to be. Progress requires you to focus very keenly on what you are working on and that means you must come out of balance. Look at balance as a Central Core to which you can constantly return. The secret, that the Masters know but few others do, is to first know when you are going too far off track. Then, more crucially, knowing exactly where that Central Core is AND then being able to get back to it no matter what is going on in your life. Balance is a ZONE, not a specific point or a lifestyle. How would it feel if you were able to quickly snap yourself back into your most powerful state no matter what your challenges? By creating a balanced plan, that is right for you, when you are in a rational mood, it is easy to get back on track. Trying to do this when everything is out of control is a much more challenging prospect.
What is Balance for You?
What you need is a few simple routines, or habits, in each of the areas of your life that you wish to master. These are the things that make you strong and make you feel in control, such as a daily run to help to get your health back on course. When you feel yourself getting out of balance, check in on what you have been doing or not doing in the other areas of your life and make some adjustments to put it right. But this is where the Art comes in. Only you will know when you are going out of balance and only you will know what it takes to get back there. In actual fact, even you may not really know the answers to these questions. So test it! If what you do does not work, try something else, and if something does work, do more of it.
Flexibility versus Discipline
Whilst you should not stress out about always being perfectly balanced, you should always be aiming to get a balance in your life by not being too extreme in any direction. The key is to get the balance between FLEXIBILITY & SELF DISCIPLINE. When you have this you are in your PRIME STATE. Flexibility is crucial to a happy life. Discipline means that when you say you are going to get something done, you, and everyone around you, knows that it is going to get done.
We all know someone who is over-disciplined and far too rigid in everything that they do. It is black or white and there is no in-between. These people are generally highly stressed and there are huge health risks associated to this. Learning to let go is a real challenge but when you do it, it is like you switched channels on the TV and a whole new world opens up. Here, I speak with a lot of experience, as I am one of these people!
Then there is the other extreme of person – those who are supremely flexible. You know the type, they can never remain focused on one thing for more than 5 minutes. They never take anything very seriously. To these people discipline is a four letter word! It is their life and they will live it on their terms. They find no issues with being late wherever they go. “I am an adult, I will decide what I do and when I do it.” Of course, this is often to the detriment of those around them, and more importantly they never get anything done. Unfortunately, a life without some sort of achievement and contribution to the world around you is pretty hollow. The goal is to get a balance between flexibility and discipline.
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