What is BALANCE? And how do you achieve it??

If you are anything like me, you too wonder how to achieve balance in, dare I say, every area of life. How do you balance work, diet, exercise, perfection, relationships, and life in general?

I want to share my number one tip on how to create a healthy work-life balance.

First, let me start by explaining a little bit more about what I know balance truly is. 

Balance is what many of us are looking for. But it has actually more to do with our decisions we’re making, or NOT making.

Balance isn’t a passive state. An absolute state of peace and harmony where you don’t have to do anything … It’s the opposite. It’s a highly active state.

 Let me give you an example. 

Something I often did as running coach, to demonstrate balance, was to ask an individual to stand on one leg and to find their balance.

Then, I would ask them;

What does finding balance feel like?

Is it a relaxing state? A relaxing activity? 

They would usually answer, “No, no, no, not at all. I feel very tense.”

Balance is achieved between tension and relaxation.

So what I want people to understand is that finding balance or balancing your own life is a highly active state.

It’s not a place you’re get to, where then nobody CAN’T get you OUT of balance. 

It’s a very conscious, deliberate and aware state, a very active state. 

So when someone is feeling torn and out of balance.

I often ask; What’s the decision you’re not making? 

Because answering that will actually help achieve the balance you are looking for.

And, there’s a time management tool that can help you create a better balance between life and work, that’s called Time Blocking or Timeboxing.

Here’s how it works:

You BLOCK out or BOX time in your calendar. It’s as simple as that.

Oftentimes, we want to do everything simultaneously, and that is what’s causing you to feel out of balance.

If you’re running your own business, like me, or if you’re juggling your job and doing things you are passionate about and finding it hard to have time for both, then time blocking is crucial. 

Here’s an example.

Let’s say at 9:00 AM, I block out time to work with a client until 10:00 AM. Then from 10 AM it’s my time to be on Social Media (for business growth) until 11 AM. After which is time for another time block with a certain agenda.

If I don’t block out time, then I can easily spend countless hours scrolling through content on social media, finally being surprised that I have no more time for other things.

So it’s about prioritizing the things you need to do at the right time and following through the time block you’ve set up.

If you can do that, you will create way more balance between work and the life you’re trying to lead.

And it ties back into what balance really is:

It’s that DECISION. 

Being loyal to that decision saying that, “this is the time when I do this.” It’s about being mindful and being present to what is happening.

It’s like if you go into a three-course dinner and while they’re serving the starters, you’re already thinking about what they’ll serve for the main course.

And as they’re serving you the main course, you’re already thinking about what’s for dessert.

So as you’re eating the main course, you’re already going, “I hope it will  be tiramisu”, or “I’m hoping it’s a volcano cake” or whatever you fancy.

And as you have your dessert, you’re already thinking, “Oh my, now I need to go back home. There’s traffic and It’s going to take forever.”

Finally as you arrive back home, you realize you didn’t actually experience ANY of those courses through that three-course dinner. Did you?

It’s  because you were so occupied with thinking about what’s next, that you missed out on the very thing you were actually doing. 

The point of all of this is to savor the moment. For you to enjoy what you’re doing and to savor the experience as you go through it.

I hope that was useful. 

Let me know your thoughts on the comments.