Stop Trying to Make Balance Happen and Get That Workout In!

Finding balance in life… It’s a little bit like finding the Holy Grail. Or capturing the Loch Ness Monster on film. Or even thinking about a world where the Kardashians weren't famous.

How do some people manage all the kids, their career demands, their relationships with loved ones AND work out AND meal prep and live to tell the tale and post it all on social media? Where do they get the gall to make it look effortless? HOW DO THEY BALANCE IT ALL? 

I heard the best answer to that question recently from IYCA president Jim Kielbaso: “You find balance by making it.”

I’m going to go a step further and say: Balance is a myth. It’s not something you “find” or can "make" and POOF, there it is! Even on someone’s best day, one of those "I have it ALL!" days, I’d bet that individual wouldn’t say they’d found “balance”. I bet what they'd found was a prioritization and time-management system that worked for them. What they’re feeling is the good life they’ve worked hard to build.

Life is fluid. “Balance” one day will look different than “balance” on another day. We may perform at a 10 one day and 4 the next. That’s a good thing! We’re not robots! And THIS is why we feel like we can never find balance.

Let's toss out this passive "balance" concept so we can get proactive! YOU get to be meticulous in what you choose to do and what NOT to do and what gets priority (like working out and eating well). YOU get to block out time in your calendar and stick to it.  YOU get to learn how to forgive yourself for not getting it all done.

YOU get to congratulate yourself for finally knowing what you’ll allow into your life and what you can do without and live by your values. You know: Creating your best life. No big deal.

Want to figure out how to make time for health and exercise while also creating your best life?
​Let's get to it!

DIRECTIONS:
Read through the below and take it one step at a time. Pick the step that sounds the easiest for you to do and layer from there. 

NOTE: I am not pretending to know your schedule, the demands in your life or who controls your calendar. I will assume you still get to choose how to take care of your health, though, so I hope this is helpful.

1. Hold a meeting with yourself at the end of your workweek, before you settle into weekend mode. Schedule it out ahead of time. Make yourself a cup of tea, get your calendars together and breathe.
2. Review what you want to do/accomplish/get done in the next week or month or season and when those things are "due"; I'd keep this list relatively short (like, 3-5 things). List them out.
3. Place the 1-2 next steps you need to take to get closer to the “due” dates.  Ex. Are you going to a beach vacation in February and want to feel your best in a bathing suit? What are the 1-2 steps you need to take this week to know you’re working closer to that goal this week?
4. Prioritize what needs to come before another thing. Which is more important to you: Using all of your spare time to finish up a project or making time to get three workouts in this week? Trust me when I say I’m not judging if you choose the project over those three workouts once in a while: It’s life, it happens. It's when choosing something over exercise becomes a trend that it's time for a serious talk with yourself about what you really want and value.
5. (I'm about to get geeky) Color code your calendar and schedule your to-dos in! For example: My client sessions show up on my Google calendar in yellow; my “working on the business” is purple; my personal stuff is blue; my couples stuff is green. Some weeks there’s hardly any blue or green and what that tells me is I may need more of a light work schedule the following week. ​

6. Execute. Stick to the plan as much as you can and alter things when needed. It will teach you what really matters to you. It might be illuminating to see how much time NOT having a plan is sucking out of your life.

Time is the only thing in life that we can never get back. It is not a renewable resource. Doing what you can to be strong and healthy can only lengthen the time you have in the world. Invest in this self-meeting time to invest in how you use your time so it pays off dividends in creating your best life.

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Still need help figuring out when to make time for exercise and healthy eating? Contact me via email or phone!