balance 3

At this time of year, a lot of people are racing toward the finish line and one of them is me. I am focused on finishing the year strong.  

It’s good to look back to where you started this year and to see where you are at the end of 2011.  In order to keep growing our businesses, we have to do these assessments. Sometimes we look at our accomplishments, and we are filled with pride. We can give ourselves a well-deserved pat on the back. Other times we feel like we have somehow come up short where our goals and our vision for our business are concerned. There are surely times we deserve this “lashing” that we tend to give ourselves. But at other times, not only is it not deserved, but it may even be holding us back. Focusing on nothing but work is not good for anyone.

 

Finding balance isn’t easy!

Balance is a tough thing to come by for a lot of us. We can get so focused on our goals and our business that we completely put aside fun activities and the “rest of our life” that doesn’t involve our work.

How many times have you worked at such a pace that you are too tired at the end of the day to spend your evening doing something fun with your family or friends? Are you too tired to keep your commitment to go to the gym and get fit? I know I struggle with this, and it is something that I want to change. I hope to be writing an article at the end of 2012 that tells everyone that I was finally successful at finding that balance that I so desperately crave, without having my business suffer.

 

So what can we do to make this change and create more balance in our lives? 

5 Tips for creating this change.

1. Strive to use our time wisely. We all have the same 24 hours each day, so get rid of the time wasters. For me, email is something that I know I spend too much time on. I am going to unsubscribe from a lot of those “gurus” that continually send me their next great idea. Reading about these new miracle programs not only takes up a lot of my time, but it takes my focus off what I know I should be doing.

2. I will clarify my goals so that my daily activities bring me closer to those goals. Taking my annual goals, breaking them down into monthly and then weekly tasks, will keep me better focused. We all know that we need to break down that big elephant into “bite sized” pieces to eat it, but putting this down on paper and forming a doable plan will make it easier.

3. I am going to begin each week with Monday being an administrative day in the office to take care of paperwork and bookkeeping. I will also be able to get a jump on my article writing for that week, so I don’t like feeling like I am “under the gun” or behind schedule all the time.

I have an accountability partner now which is great. We have our weekly call early Tuesday morning, so my Monday office day will allow me to finish anything I need to do before my Tuesday call.

4. I am going to commit to a formal monthly review of my goals. I want to see what went wrong with my plan each month so that I can make corrections and adjustments more quickly.  I tend to over commit; to over-estimate what any one person can accomplish and still have a life. I am hoping this exercise will help me find more balance.

5. I am committed to having more fun and more “me time” in my schedule in 2012.  I also plan to include some gym time earlier in the day for me at least a couple of days a week. It just isn’t working out to put it on my schedule for the evening after when I am tired from working a long day.

I have come to the conclusion that just like you create a plan for your business, if you don’t’ create a plan to help you achieve balanced life it probably isn’t going to happen. 

 

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