Many times, we often are busy with many non important and non-urgent tasks and life gets out of balance. If we focus on following six areas, we can be balanced. All of these six areas need attention in order for our life to be in balance. One can be healthy, wealthy but yet lonely,that will not be a true balanced life, you get the picture.
1. Money:
Money is one of the biggest issue we all face, if it is ignored, it can destroy happiness and harmony in any relationship, including one with yourself. Did you know, many married couple or family members fight about money and it is #1 cause for divorces. Not to mention sleepless nights and constant worries that will wreak all other aspects of one’s life. Best way to deal with this issue is to spend less then you earn, pay off debts via snowball and automate your financial life, so you will need to spend little time maintaining it and more time enjoying it.
2. Health:
Some one has said ” True wealth is health”, which is so true. We will realize it only after being sick often that how easy we had it and how we abused our bodies by eating unhealthy and not exercising. Health problems can make us feel miserable, cut our social and financial life short. It is good to spend little time cooking, eating healthy food, drinking water and exercising your body and staying right weight. Doing little changes everyday will have a major impact on your health, slow and steady wins the health race too.
3. Family time:
If this list was based on priorities, it will be at the top. If we are so busy making money and exercising but not spending enough time with family, our life will be out of balance. At the death bed, no one wishes that they had made more money, or worked long hours. All of us want to be loved and tell loved one that we love and care for them. Make a effort to spend time with your spouse, kids, mother, father, siblings, and in-laws and friends. You will be glad you did.
4. Religious/ Spiritual:
Prayers do wonder for most of when we are down, worried and do not know where to turn. One does not need to be religious for a prayer, being spiritual also helps. When we are down, a simple prayer to a god from a heart does us so good. Mahatma Gandhi has said “There has never been a time when God has not answered my prayers”. Even if we do not have conviction like Gandhi, being spiritual helps tremendously when we are drowning in worries. Even when the problem does not go away, big burden on your heart might be lifted and that is a good reason to pray for most of us.
5. Knowledge/Learning:
One does not need to keep learning from PhD, Masters and other degrees to keep learning. For many people who are working, they keep learning, new tools, software, technology to help them get better at their professional career. However, even for people are unemployed or work from home, stay at home like myself, there are many ways to keep learning and gain new knowledge.
Learning can be simple as learning cook, or sew or garden. Learning how to save money, invest, how to be a better parent, reading various books on topics you might be interested in. Learning about other countries, culture also counts. As long as we are constantly learning, we feel part of society, part of contributing member of family.
6. Social:
We human are social creature. Solitude helps us focus what we want in our life from time to time, however, we need social contacts from family, friends to talk our feelings, hear others perspective and live among others. Too much social and not enough inward focus will leave this area out of balance.
Stephen Covey has once said, we play many roles and fulfilling each roles will help us achieve balance we seek. For example, my role is as a daughter, wife, mother, friend, woman and home CFO (basically bills payer), if I ignore any of the role long enough, my life would be uncomfortably out of balance.
I believe, if any of us followed these 6 critical area of our lives, our lives would be happier and smoother and in balance. Do you agree? How do you balance your life? Would you like to add any suggestions that would help?
Zengirl
If you would like to implement some of Stephen Covey’s best ideas, you can use this web aplication:
http://www.Gtdagenda.com
You can use it to manage and prioritize your Goals (in each of your life’s categories), projects and tasks, in an intuitive interface. It has a Checklists section, for the repetitive activities you have to do, important but not urgent (Quadrant II, for example your routines/habits). Also, it features a Schedules section and a Calendar, for scheduling you time, activities and for the weekly review.
Some features from GTD are also present, like Contexts and Next Actions.
And it’s available on the mobile phone too, so you can access it wherever you are.
Zengirl, thanks for this reminder to seek balance in all things. That is definitely the key to a successful life!
Zengirl, I really think the first three: Family, Health and Money are the main ones in life yet life would be really poor without the addition of the other three. All the success in the world is worthless if you don't have health and a functioning family. Seems that Covey has nailed the balance.
Do you do twitter? If so let me know so I can follow.
Dannielo,
Thanks for stopping by and for your comment. I will check out the website for more information. I could not see your blog, is it private?
Betsy,
You are so right, balance is the key for success for many of us. Thank you for your continuing support here.
Filip Matous,
Thank you for stopping by and writing a comment. You are right, without first 3 are important but having all area balanced is best.
Stephen covey, mentions about putting some time for our each roles, such as son/daughter, Father/Mother, Brother/sister, Employee/Boss, Friend, self etc.
I do not have twitter account right now, when I do will let you know.
I look forward to it, twitter it's the easiest way to stay on top of new content and share your message. And yeah, I agree with you, mothers that don't have any "self" time are not balanced. Although I bet it is really hard to keep any sort of balance… I wouldn't know haha
I'm going to be including balance in a talk I'm giving next week so this is a good reminder of the key things to balance…thanks zengirl! (that could be your superhero name!)
😉
Filip Matous,
You are right, with 2 little ones, I hardly get little time, I did not want to make myself too networked, slow and steady blogging may work for me, Let's see.
Maybe some day, if you become father, you will know joy and sleeplessness that comes with kids. :-)I would not change things for the world though.
Amit,
I wish you best of luck on your next talk, I am sure it will be a success! Super hero name? I like the sound of it, but hardly, I fit the bill right now, as one tired and sleepy one.
We all must certainly dedicate our lives to knowledge ad spiritual growth, It's necessary for log term success and positive self esteem. Great post.
Jonathan:
Well said. Knowledge and Spiritual growth is very important but sometimes we overlook it.
Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment.