Balance Your Life, Not Just Your Check Book - Part 2
Part one of this article can be found at
http://www.businessplanningmadeeasy.com/Balance_Your_Life_1.htm
Having recognized those areas that we need to include in our
daily and weekly schedule, now is the time to reorganize your
life to achieve this balance. One of the first steps to take is
to do a Brain Dump. Let me explain what I mean.
If you are like me (and many others), you no doubt have a
million ideas flying around in your head, reminding you of their
importance. By freeing up your mind to enjoy other areas of your
life, you need to take these thoughts and empty your brain. To
do this, grab a pen and a journal or notepad, sit down in a
quiet room with some relaxing music, and write down all those
tasks and activities that are in-between your ears. It doesn't
matter how long the list is, just as long as you can get all of
those thoughts onto paper.
Now, having emptied your brain of these nagging thoughts, you
can organize them into the seven key areas of your life: Career
and Business, Financial, Health, Fun, Relationships, Personal
and Contribution.
Next, analyze your week. Have a look at how you currently spend
your time in each area. If you watch 3 hours of TV a night, then
write down 3 hours of TV (Fun) per night. Continue to look at
all of your activities and allocate an amount of time to them.
What you should have in front of you is a list of activities and
their corresponding area of your life (Fun, Career and Business,
etc). There is a good chance that some of the areas are not
included, for example Financial, Contribution, or Personal.
On another piece of paper, write down those activities that you
WANT to do on a daily or weekly basis. For example, you may WANT
to do one hour of exercise each day, but never seem to get
around to it. You may also WANT to study a new language or
musical instrument, but never seem to find the time. When making
this list, thing of at least one activity for each of the seven
key areas, and how much time for each of these activities you
will allocate to it.
When making this list, certain things will become clearer to
you. Namely, the level of imbalance that you currently have, and
what you have been missing out on so far to run in the Rat Race.
Take the second list - all of your activities that you would
like to see take place each week - and merge it with the first.
TO do this, simply, cut out extra Fun activities; reduce your
Career and Business activities, and so on, to allow for AT LEAST
ONE activity from each of the seven key areas to take place.
Once you have done this, you will be able to visually see the
small changes you must make in your daily/weekly routine to
start the process of balancing your life.
And lastly, but most importantly, allow yourself to enjoy the
moment. If you have planned to spend time with friends and
family, then ENJOY the moment and stop thinking about tasks
demanding your attention. If you have planned to work on your
business, then immerse yourself in it, and do not think about
what you might do in the evening with your family.
The key to achieving a balanced life is to spread your
activities across the seven key areas AND give yourself
permission and the time to ENJOY these different activities.
After all, you deserve it!