Work life balance – why is it that it always seems to elude us?

As you might have discovered, finding and maintaining the balance that suits you best is not always that straightforward.

For me this past month has been a particularly busy one, and a little out of balance at times, with a very full work schedule, preparing my 18-year-old son to go overseas for several months as well as my own preparation to travel to Europe next month.

Creating a sense of balance in your life requires constant attention and is definitely worth the effort because when we get out of balance we find stress begins to increase and have a negative effect in all areas of our life, especially our health.

I believe balance is about understanding what is important in your life, creating your priorities and then ensuring you are scheduling into your weekly plan your important priorities.

Here are a few tips to maintain life balance and wellbeing:
Time out for yourself – As much as your work and family takes priority in your life, it’s important that you schedule “me time”. Taking just one hour, once a week to do something for yourself can do wonders for your wellbeing – and your relationships and career will benefit too.
Look after your health – Stress is one of the biggest causes of poor health so your health should be a priority. If you’re not in top shape both mentally and physically, it will affect all areas of your life. Get enough sleep, eat regularly and choose healthy options, take time out for relaxation and exercise at least five times a week.
Consciously create balance – Do a monthly life balance self assessment to ensure you are meeting your needs in all areas of your life (see the ‘Wheel of Life’ tool on my website).
Manage your time – Plan your days and prioritise your time to ensure you are setting time aside for the important things in your life, your exercise, family time, hobbies, “me time” etc. If it’s not in your diary and you have not planned for it, it may not happen.

Enjoy creating more balance in your life….

Work life balance – why is it that it always seems to elude us?

As you might have discovered, finding and maintaining the balance that suits you best is not always that straightforward.

For me this past month has been a particularly busy one, and a little out of balance at times, with a very full work schedule, preparing my 18-year-old son to go overseas for several months as well as my own preparation to travel to Europe next month.

Creating a sense of balance in your life requires constant attention and is definitely worth the effort because when we get out of balance we find stress begins to increase and have a negative effect in all areas of our life, especially our health.

I believe balance is about understanding what is important in your life, creating your priorities and then ensuring you are scheduling into your weekly plan your important priorities.

Here are a few tips to maintain life balance and wellbeing:

• Time out for yourself – As much as your work and family takes priority in your life, it’s important that you schedule “me time”. Taking just one hour, once a week to do something for yourself can do wonders for your wellbeing – and your relationships and career will benefit too.
• Look after your health – Stress is one of the biggest causes of poor health so your health should be a priority. If you’re not in top shape both mentally and physically, it will affect all areas of your life. Get enough sleep, eat regularly and choose healthy options, take time out for relaxation and exercise at least five times a week.
• Consciously create balance – Do a monthly life balance self assessment to ensure you are meeting your needs in all areas of your life (see the ‘Wheel of Life’ tool on my website).
• Manage your time – Plan your days and prioritise your time to ensure you are setting time aside for the important things in your life, your exercise, family time, hobbies, “me time” etc. If it’s not in your diary and you have not planned for it, it may not happen.

Enjoy creating more balance in your life….

☺ Julie

 

As we begin a new year it is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the past 12 months and celebrate our successes and consider what improvements we would like to make as we plan for a positive and successful 2011.

It has been a full and exciting year for me and here are some of my learnings.

• Every day we choose our attitudes and therefore our outcomes so make a choice to make every day the best it possibly can be (even when we are feeling challenged).
• Be clear on what’s important to you. Know what your priorities are and what’s most important in your life so you can plan activities and have time to do the things that matter most.
• Take time out for planning and reflection. When I got busy and didn’t make time to do my planning or reflection, I became busier and found myself getting off track. Reflection time allows us to stay on track and maintain a balance.
• Keep your life in balance. I find this works best when I regularly have time to stop and reflect and look at areas of my life that I have been neglecting and set goals to change that.
• Remember to have fun – sometimes when life gets so hectic we need to schedule in time for fun activities, it reduces stress and allows us to remember what life is really all about.
• Be grateful – every day I affirm what I am grateful for in my life and it really does bring things into perspective and allows me to appreciate who I am and what I have in my life.

Take time out to plan and set goals for what is most important in your life and make this year a wonderful and meaningful one!

 

Legendary coach John Wooden said, “Don’t mistake activity for achievement”. You may be busy from the moment your alarm goes off in the morning until the time your head hits the pillow at night, but are you accomplishing anything meaningful toward the fulfillment of your goals? Are you making forward progress, or are you just running in one place?

Last month we looked at creating new strategies for more effective time management. What I have found is that our lack of time and busyness is not always a reflection of the commitments we have in our life but can also be attributed to not having a clear vision for what we want to create in our future. We can be so busy doing “stuff” but it may not be moving us towards where we want to be in life and our happiness.

Do you know what you specifically want to achieve in the next 12 months and who you want to be?

To have balance in life it is important to have a clear written plan (your vision) and write what you want to achieve in each area of  your life.

Here is a challenge for those of you who would like to have less busyness and more life balance and peace.

Over the next week clarify exactly what you want in all 9 areas of your life:

1. Financial
2. Career/Business
3. Family & home
4. Health & fitness
5. Relationships
6. Social & fun
7. Personal growth
8. Mental resiliency – bouncing back from challenges
9. Making a difference/contribution

Create a vibrant, crystal-clear image of your ideal life and write your vision in detail, and then set goals specific to enable you to achieve this vision. Follow this plan and notice how you become more productive and in control of your life and happiness.

If you want guidance in this area, check out the details of our next Group Coaching program.

If you have been feeling “life is so busy, and there is never enough time in a day”, its time to look at how you are prioritizing your days.

Remembering that “attitude is everything” , so if we feel busy in our head that will be reflected in our outer life.

Sometimes we forget that we receive–every day–a gift that holds the potential of a million-dollar impact on our life.

That gift is 24 hours of time that you can spend however you choose for profit or for pleasure.

Effective time organisation provides no additional time, but it produces multiple benefits by helping you become aware of the time you maybe wasting so that you may use it more effectively.

I believe the most important objective of time organisation is to live a full and meaningful life in the present, by learning from the lessons of yesterday, and planning with positive expectation for tomorrow.

You control your own time, therefore to maintain a balance in life it is important to be very clear where you are going in life, have a vision and specific goals of how you are going to get there.

A few tips to be effective with your time:

• Evaluate how you’re spending your time. Keep a diary of everything you do for three days to determine how you’re spending your time
• Become clear whats really important in your life and prioritise your time with that in mind.
• Have a clear vision for where you are going in your life and set purpose orientated life goals.
• Keep your professional and personal schedules and priorities manageable and doable
• At the beginning of each week prioritise the most important activities into your diary, ensuring this includes family time and time for yourself and fun activities
• Learn to say no to nonessential tasks– Ask yourself, “Is this the wisest and best use of my time right now?”
• And most important, have fun everyday!

Have you ever noticed when two people in identical, high-stress situations, that one of them gets stressed out and the other one handles the situation with ease and grace?

It’s because of the different ways they internalize what’s going on.  Stress doesn’t exist in the outside world; it just exists inside your head.  It’s up to you which way you choose to perceive it.

Stress is an internal phenomenon.

And remember – stress is not good or bad.  It just IS.  We need a certain amount of stress to motivate us but we need to understand ourselves to know when “too much” is having an adverse effect on our mind and body.

Your reaction to stress can become a habit.  So, as the famous quote by Socrates, “Know thyself”, it is important to become aware of how you respond and react to situations and people so you can make positive changes.

The good news is you can change your habits.

So take charge and be your own boss – make a conscious choice to be happy, relaxed and stay positive by using these five strategies:(I guarantee that if you use them every day, they will make a massive positive difference in your life).

1. Use the power of your choice – you have the ability to make choices.  Once you realize that you have a choice between being stressed or staying calm and relaxed, you can then create healthy new habits and alternatives to stress.
2. Choose to create a new meaning about the person or event – your mind labels everything that happens to you, to reduce worry or stress, choose to make up a more positive meaning about the event or person.
3. Understand what you can and cannot control. Once you accept the fact that you can’t control an event or person, you can take action to change yourself and your thoughts about the situation.
4. See other viewpoints – imagine the situation if you were standing in the other persons’ shoes, how might you feel?
5. Learn to let go. Perhaps the hardest of all skills.  One easy way to let go is to take a look around, observe someone else experiencing distress, step out of your world and step into theirs, and then help them.  It is amazing how much better you will feel.

Have a positive and productive week.

Hi

Here is a quick tip to keep stress levels down and feeling energized everyday.

Have a great week!

Having just returned from our Bali Women’s Retreat, I was reminded how easily our stress can sneak up on us with the constant demands of our busy life, and how rewarding it is to take time out to relax and rejuvenate and recharge the batteries.

We all experience stress from time to time. However when stress gets to be too much, it can take its toll on our and health and happiness, so having effective strategies to reduce stress levels are essential in restoring our inner peace, health and wellbeing.

Start today to create daily healthy habits and notice how more relaxed you feel. Here’s a few tips to start you on your way…

1. Exercise –is a powerful way to reduce stress and can provide an effective release of negative emotions and also decrease ‘stress hormones’ like cortisol and increase endorphins, your body’s ‘feel-good’ chemicals, giving your mood a natural boost.
2. Eat to stay on top – stress also wears down the immune system, which is why we get sick during challenging times. To counteract this, eat a healthy balanced diet to boost your immune system.
3. Time for you – everyone needs time to relax and recover from the stresses of the day, so schedule time to do the things you love to do and that make you feel relaxed and rejuvenated.
4. Simplify your life – simplifying life is a great way to reduce stress, cut out extra commitments that don’t serve you, change relationships that stress you, and change activities that you don’t enjoy. Take stock of what you do in your life that is creating pressure and things that you don’t enjoy and make the necessary changes.
5. Get organized – being organized is the best way of creating extra time in your life and cutting down stress. Prioritise activities and responsibilities, ensuring you schedule in time for the most important things in your life i.e. family time, you time, exercise etc.

Enjoy creating a stress free week…

This video on Earth Hour is quite inspiring – what will you be doing when the lights go off?