Is your life in balance?

Do you know what that means—to live a life that is balanced?

This is a question that can be difficult to answer.

I went through over 20 years of my adult life totally clueless. I never thought about life balance. I was just spending my days on my treadmill of life.

For me, my life was not in balance. I worked too much. I made a good salary, and raised a great family, but other than that, I felt empty. I neglected my health.  I neglected my relationships. I lost focus on my spiritual growth.  I was not learning and growing. I was on autopilot.

After finally deciding to leave a job in a big company to follow my dream of being an entrepreneur, I came into the concept of life balance, and the pursuit of lifetime growth.

My life has since changed for the better, and in big ways.

Creating balance does not mean my life is without disappointment. I am imperfect and flawed, but I do my best. I try to improve a little every day. I enjoy my life and I am committed to keeping it in balance. I don’t let my work life overtake my time and erode my relationships. I also try not to allow finances to become an obsession, one that could rob me of emotional peace.  

As I coach entrepreneurs and employees all across the country, and in all phases of life, I rarely come across those who feel their life is in balance. The concept of life balance is not taught in high school or college, nor is it usually something that parents teach their kids. Instead, we often push our kids toward a career with a single focus on making as much money as possible.

I believe that the best life is one that is connected with your personal purpose and passions, and that is lived with making balance a priority. I use a process to regularly assess my life balance, and to set actions into place to improve where I am out of balance.

The process goes like this:

Draw a circle with six spokes.  The spokes are the following priorities:

  • (S) Spiritual

  • (P) Physical Health

  • (R) Relationships

  • (E) Emotional Health

  • (I)  Intellectual & Professional Growth

  • ($) Financial

On a scale of 0 – 10, with 10 being perfect, honestly assess your current condition on each of these priorities. On the wheel, mark your score at the appropriate point along the scale. Then, draw a line connecting the dots.

Take a look at the picture you have drawn. A life well-balanced will resemble a circle, or a wheel. A life out of balance will show flat spots, like a flat tire. The spots that are flat represent the areas in your life which need work—which need focus to improve.

Just as a flat tire cannot efficiently move down the road, a life that is not balanced cannot efficiently move through time.

Don’t live a life that is a flat tire! Set your goal to be balanced and growing, and your best life will be yet to come!

Cheers!

Coach Brett Blair

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