By Olena Gill
Do you feel stressed or overwhelmed in your life? Are you juggling many balls in the air, with many external demands on your time and energy? Do you feel burned out? Is your life out of control? If you answered yes to at least one of these questions, there’s a good chance that there is a need to examine and balance the priorities in your life.
Balance – now that’s easier said than done, especially in this fast-paced mode of living that most of us are in. Yet we crave that balance desperately. So just how do we create the work-life balance? Well, let’s try a simple exercise.
1. Think of your life as a wheel. On a sheet of paper draw a circle. You are in the center. Every area and aspect of your life is represented by a spoke, each which extend as a line radiating from that center. Name those areas – they can be any category in your life – e.g. relationships, finances, health, job or career, security, personal development, recreation, energy, family and friends.
2. Go around the wheel and rate each spoke from 1 to 10 (with 1 being low and 10 being great) based on how you feel at this moment about that particular area in your life.
3. Mark each spoke with a dot representing your rating, with 10 at the outer edge of the circle and 1 close to the center.
4. Now connect all the dots and take a close at the picture that emerges. How does your Wheel of Life actually look?
The first step to creating the balance is to ascertain which areas are lacking. Your completed picture will show you on which areas you focus versus those that are being neglected.
The second step is deciding what actions you could take towards strengthening those areas in need of attention. For example, if you rated yourself low on the Recreation aspect, what could you do to infuse more play-time and fun into your life? Perhaps it will involve scheduling non-negotiable time for yourself, for example, 30 minutes twice a week. Or perhaps it’s about taking a walk, or planning an outing with your children or friends – time devoted solely to fun and enjoyment.
Finally, it’s all a matter of applying your actions. The steps need not be huge. But just like your car’s gas tank, your inner energy reserve needs to be replenished. If it becomes depleted, you won’t function as well, and may burn out. Balancing your life provides this replenishment.
So, go ahead and implement the changes in your life. Seek support from others around you. And the result? A more balanced and effective you.
Olena Gill is a life and business coach and owner of Indigo-Crystal Coaching Services in Errington, BC. She assists people in re-balancing in both personal and business envioronments and is the author of several forthcoming books on personal development. You may contact her at http://www.indigocrystalcoach.com.
Copyright 2005
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