life balance

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Having Good Work-Life Balance Requires Discomfort

It will always be challenging to strike a good work-balance. It simply is. You can manage it but you can’t escape it. But you’ll manage to get through it no matter what. That is definite!

It takes strength of character to try and balance your life and your work. For the majority of people, obligations, stress, and other commitments just meld together, turning life into a frantic back-and-forth race to keep everything in line.

The secret to lowering stress and establishing more order in your life is to put a few practical strategies into action. We are creatures of habit, and forming new habits has its own set of issues, so there are issues here as well.

We’ll feel discomfort as we adjust to any new routines and habits… but once you embrace them and incorporate them into your lifestyle, you’ll benefit from them so much more in the long run.

Establish Firm Boundaries

Your family, friends, and others are affected by this habit. It most definitely applies to you. This will be your biggest obstacle.

How then do you establish boundaries?

Choosing your start and finish times for work will be the first step. This is particularly valid if you work from home.

The challenge that the majority of individuals will encounter is that they have so much flexibility when working at home that it will be difficult to discipline themselves.

You’ll also need to tell your family and friends not to enter your work area and to respect your working hours.

You won’t work for too much and risk burnout if you set out certain blocks of time for work and rest. The pauses between notes are what make music.

Get Rid of All Distractions

This is another challenging habit to establish. The majority  of us are so linked to the outside world that working in isolation feels absurd.

However, the greatest method to be productive is to devote your full concentration to the subject at hand. Multitasking impairs your concentration and productivity. It should be avoided at all costs.

Silencing your phone during work hours is the simplest way to eliminate all distractions. It’s much better if you can put it in a different room so you’re less inclined to check notifications etc. When something is out of sight, it is out of mind and will be less tempting.

Dealing with the problem of social media addiction can be more difficult because these platforms cause users to develop a dopamine addiction. Checking your notifications, likes and shares gives you a slight ‘high,’ and you can see instant feedback.

Turning off your Wi-Fi or using apps like Rescue Time are the best ways to resist the continual temptation to check your social media.

Reduce your distractions as much as possible so that you can stay focused.

Organize Your Time

Both work and other pursuits fall under this category. There is a difference between working on projects that make a difference and wasting time on ‘busy work’ that keeps you busy but doesn’t advance you.

You should always spend the majority of your time on tasks that advance your company. Usually, the things you put off until later are the tasks that are the most important. It’s simply in our nature.

So, pay attention to the tasks that are important and finish the rest later. You’ll discover that by not continually stressing about your backlog of work, you have more leisure time and mental calmness.

You’ll feel uncomfortable as you establish these new productivity practices. This is normal behaviour. Until the challenging becomes simple and the simple becomes beautiful, keep putting up with the discomfort.

Your life will feel better when you have good habits and a strong sense of balance in your life.

Your Life Should Be Filled With Devotion And Dedication

“We must provide for our loved ones, but at what cost?” wrote author James Jean-Pierre. “After all, a dead person cannot provide for the living.”

This quote may sound harsh, but it is undoubtedly true. Instead of the other way around, we work to live. The reality that millions of people nowadays see their jobs and their work as their lives seems to have eluded them.

They are constantly burning the candle at both ends. It never stops…, trying to make more money, get more stuff, more accomplishments, more growth.

Even when we work hard to accomplish our goals and eventually succeed, we rarely take the time to celebrate our success before setting new, even more difficult goals that will just add to our stress.

The cycle never ends. A rat race to be the best rat…  and time marches on. Our relationships ultimately become meaningless and fleeting. Family ends up taking second place, and any communications are relegated to a few quick exchanges as we go about our busy lives.

Thus, the question is raised, “What is the point of all this madness?” 

Your work cannot follow you into eternity. You won’t ever look back on your life and wish that you had put in more effort or devoted more time in the office.

On their deathbeds, millions of individuals regret not having spent more time with family and friends. They regret putting the wrong things first and sabotaging what really mattered in life.

They wished they could go back in time and start the process over again… however, they can’t. The same goes for us.

The reality is that no matter how prosperous and successful you may become, your commitment to your family should always come first in all you do.

Make Communication A Priority

Give your family members an hour of your day to talk to them. Learn what is happening in their lives. Know what they are thinking, feeling, and fearing.

Be there when they need you to be there. Avoid using your phone to check emails and refrain from becoming side-tracked by work-related activities. Your family deserves your undivided attention.

Plan A Date Night

Once you get married, dating your spouse doesn’t have to come to an end. Establish a weekly date night and take a break from working to add some romance to your life. This will keep the fire burning in your relationship and keep the spark alive.

Being a family provider while neglecting your spouse due to work is a really short-sighted strategy.

Numerous business owners who were too preoccupied with their jobs to maintain their relationships have done so and their marriages ended; don’t be that person.

Engage With Them On A Personal Level

Participate in any event your children have at school. Be gracious  and watch a film with your wife if that’s what she wants to do. Take an interest in the other person’s lives.

While there may be pressing work-related issues, showing an interest in their lives will pay off in the long term much more than you can imagine.

Dedicate some time to simply be with them when they are doing what they enjoy.

Vacations With The Family

If you can, go on a little family vacation. It doesn’t matter if you can’t take a full weeklong vacation.  Even a little two- or three-day vacation to the lakes, mountains or a neighbouring resort will be beneficial for you and your family,

Your soul will benefit from the break from work, and you’ll return to work with more mental focus.

If you want to achieve work-life balance, it all comes down to striking a balance between your family and professional commitments.

Be committed and loyal to the people in your life because they are what counts.

Whatever you want in life will require discipline to achieve and maintaining a healthy work life balance is a small part of that. And if you want to know more about harnessing the power of self-discipline, then check out the featured resource below for a free report; download, read it and take action 🙂

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Hold Yourself Accountable For Maintaining Work-Life Balance

Hold Yourself Accountable For Maintaining Work-Life Balance

When you work for yourself, you need to be accountable to yourself. When you’re self-employed, you’re all you have. Unlike a day job, when you have deadlines, performance reports, and a boss to report to, you’re all you have.

Even if you have an accountability partner, you’ll have to hold yourself accountable the majority of the time. If you don’t, there’s a good chance you’ll start slacking off or postponing.

Your work-life balance will be thrown out of whack, and you’ll be continually striving to catch up at the expense of other aspects of your life.

Journaling

One of the most effective strategies to hold yourself accountable is to keep a journal. Make a detailed account of your day. Did you follow through on your promises to yourself? Or did you manufacture excuses and put things off?

The journaling process must be open and honest, as well as a time for reflection. Are your behaviours in line with your objectives? What we want and what we do frequently contradict one other.

Staying on track requires identifying and addressing trouble areas immediately. Your work will improve, and you will have more time to relax and socialise.

Task List

A to-do list is an excellent way to keep track of your daily tasks. Write down three of the most critical chores that must be completed that day.

Your goal is to complete those three things first thing in the morning. In his book “Eat That Frog,” Brian Tracy discusses this. The remainder of the jobs will be a breeze once you’ve completed the challenging ones.

Keep Time Tracking

The essence of life is time. It’s a good idea to start by writing down what you’re doing every hour in a notepad. This personal time management will assist you identify where your time is going.

Seeing how many hours are wasted on minor hobbies like social networking or talking on the phone, for example, can be eye-opening.

You’ll know where your energy is going once you know where your focus is going. You may then eliminate the time-wasters and concentrate on what really matters.

This amount of discipline may appear to be restricting your life and not enjoyable at all. However, the opposite is true. When you’re disciplined during the workday, you get more done in less time and encounter fewer issues.

This gives you more time to do what you enjoy rather than continuously putting out fires at work.

Micro-goals

To make the process easier and more achievable, every main goal should be broken down into smaller micro goals. Break your big aim down into smaller monthly and weekly benchmarks. Make a list of activities you need to do every day to meet that weekly goal.

It’s only a question of time before you achieve the primary objective if you meet the micro ones. This way, instead of being overwhelmed by the mountain of a goal in the distance, you’ll be focused on the task at hand.

Rewarding Yourself

Take time each day to praise yourself for doing a good job. You should give yourself a pat on the back to motivate yourself, just like you hold yourself accountable.

Holding oneself accountable isn’t exactly a pleasurable hobby… but it’s essential. However, don’t be too hard on yourself if you slip up or make a mistake now and then. It happens to even the most capable individuals.

Simply assess what went wrong, pick yourself up, and keep moving forward. Every day is another opportunity to improve and enhance yourself. Don’t allow yesterday’s mistakes hold you back today.

When It Comes To Work-Life Balance, How Much Spillover Is Acceptable?

Spillover occurs when your professional and personal lives begin to blur. In the traditional sense, this would imply that your spouse or family calls you at work.

While there is nothing intrinsically wrong with a fast 2-minute call, it is still a distraction that might throw you off your game. You want to be on the go when you’re at work.

If you receive a call from home informing you that your neighbor’s child has broken the house window while playing ball, you will be concerned. You might be casual about it or moderately irritated, depending on your personality. A person who is extremely worried may become enraged.

The truth is that the call might have been postponed. Instead, overflow has occurred, and what happened at home has now damaged you mentally and emotionally at work.

When you work from home, it’s even more difficult to avoid spillage. For starters, you’ll most likely be able to hear distant family members. There will be distractions even with noise cancelling headphones.

What level of overflow is acceptable?

There is no right or incorrect answer in this situation. Generally speaking, the less spillage, the better. You want to concentrate as much as possible. Let’s have a look at a few things to think about.

Knowing When To Maintain Balance

It’s unavoidable that your career will require more attention at times… and that your home duties will take up more of your time.

If you have a tight deadline looming, restrict your time with your family to an hour and get back to work as soon as possible. Your child may also need your assistance with a school project.

You may decide to work less and spend more time with your child during this time. There are no hard and fast rules or schedules.

All you have to do is keep your cool and remember that these are exceptions to the rule. For the most part, it’s ideal to stick to a set routine with little variation.

Are Your Employees Your Friends?

This is yet another delicate subject. You are unlikely to have employees if you work from home.

However, if you operate a business and are extremely close with your employees (going out for drinks with them after work), they may lose respect for you, and it will be difficult to set boundaries with them.

What happens if you spend late nights with them and one of them is late for work the next day? They’ll count on you to understand. You were with them, after all.

This is an example of spillover that has an impact on your work productivity. With your staff, you must draw boundaries.

Should You Set Up An Office Or Work From Home?

This spillage can be frustrating and distracting if you work from home but can’t get your kids to be quiet while you’re working or if your spouse keeps nagging you to perform chores.

You may rent a modest office to work from during these hours. Working from home isn’t going to suffice. You require your personal space as well as a distraction-free workplace.

The cost of renting an office will be more than offset by your increased productivity. Calculate whether or not an office is right for you.

To summarise, whether you work from home or have a day job, spillover is nearly hard to avoid. The most you can do is try to keep the spillover to a minimum and discover strategies to lessen it if it becomes too much. It is possible.

Whatever you want in life will require discipline to achieve and maintaining a healthy work life balance is a small part of that. And if you want to know more about harnessing the power of self-discipline, then check out the featured resource below for a free report; download, read it and take action 🙂

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Creating Harmony Between Work And Home Life

Creating Harmony Between Work And Home Life

Creating Harmony Between Work And Home Life

The connection between your work and home life is extremely strong even if it’s almost invisible. Have you ever had a day when you just couldn’t do your best at work because you had some family issues at home?

Or maybe your gym workout wasn’t as good as it normally is because you had a quarrel with your spouse?

We’ve all had times where our emotions affect our work performance… and the reverse holds true too. Work problems can show up as squabbles in the family life too.

We’re not like airtight submarine ballast tanks that operate independently and function normally by shutting out different parts of the tanks if there are leaks.

Human beings are much more complex. Our work life and home life merge in a multitude of ways. The best way to ensure that we are performing optimally will be to harmonize our work and home lives.

Watch Your Diet

You are what you eat. If your diet is high in processed foods and you’re burning the candle at both ends by guzzling caffeinated products constantly, you’ll not be feeling your best.

Good health leads to better work performance and a clean and nutritious diet is crucial to ensuring you are getting all the nutrients you eat. What you eat is just as important as what you do not eat.

It’s easy to let your diet slide and grab whatever food is most convenient rather than what’s best for your health. In many cases, our jobs are sedentary.

This leads to creeping weight gain and before we know it, we’re overweight or obese. This leads to a lack of energy, lower concentration and higher stress.

By cleaning up your diet and eating what’s right for you, you’ll indirectly elevate your work performance to the next level.

Relationships Must Not Be Sour

Avoid arguing or fighting with your spouse constantly. Strife in the home is a vexation to the spirit and it’s difficult to give your best at work when you’re replaying the tense scenarios at home and reliving the negative energy that comes from these types of situations.

Aim for consensus rather than conflict. Communicate with your spouse and family often to ensure that everyone is on the same page. There’ll be fewer occasions where people in the household butt heads.

You’ll have more peace of mind and be happy at the work place, even if you’re working from home.

Late Nights

Late nights can lead to groggy mornings. Sometimes we feel a need to stay up late so that we squeeze in as much life as possible into our day. There’s even a slang for it these days – FOMO, which stands for fear of missing out.

We want to do more work, binge watch as many Netflix shows as we can, party hard and so on – and we want to do it all at once. When you’re young, this is possible.

As you get older, one late night at a pub might leave you feeling groggy for two days. So, it’s best to err on the side of caution and not overdo things.

Go to bed earlier so that you wake up feeling refreshed. You’ll be ready to give your best at work when you’ve had a good night’s rest.

Bad Habits

It goes without saying that negative habits such as alcohol, smoking, etc. can take a toll on your health. Other addictions such as gambling, addiction to pornography, etc. can lead to disastrous consequences at home, which in turn will affect your work adversely.

So, keep an eye on the activities in your life that may come back to bite you. Once you lead a clean lifestyle, you’ll find that there’s harmony at work and at home.

While challenges may crop up, they will be fewer and far between… and much more manageable. This is a good place to be.

Gratitude At Work And Home Provides Peace And Acceptance

There’s a saying that gratitude is the best medicine because it heals your mind, body and spirit and attracts more things in your life to be grateful for.

When you have an attitude of gratitude, it’s almost impossible to be unhappy and discontented. The problem that most people face is that they want to be grateful, but life just gets in the way.

If they have a job and their boss is unreasonable, they hate their job instead of being grateful for being employed. If they’re in good health, they may dislike being a few pounds overweight.

If they’re earning three thousand dollars a month, they envy their neighbor, Bill, who makes 10 thousand dollars a month. It never ends.

Here’s what most people don’t understand – you can be grateful for what you have without forcing yourself to like your current situation.

You may hate your job, but you can be grateful that you have a source of income to pay your bills and put food on the table. Now go ahead and look for a better job.

The same applies to everything else. You don’t have to like the way things are, but you have to accept them and look for the silver lining in the dark clouds.

There are a few ways you can do this.

Practice Mindfulness

Mindfulness helps you live in the moment. If your work at home business isn’t thriving as well as you had hoped, be mindful that you’re at home in comfort.

You don’t need to put up with a daily crowded commute. You’re still making money and that’s good. Now ask yourself what else you could be doing to take your income to the next level.

Be mindful at all times and watch your thoughts. Every single time a negative thought creeps in, replace it with something you’re grateful for. This one habit alone can be a life-changing one.

Keep A Gratitude Journal

One excellent way to establish gratitude as a habit will be to keep a gratitude journal. Many successful people write down three things that they’re grateful for every single day.

This action helps you focus on what is good in your life. It aligns your thinking towards positivity. This is crucial to having a healthy and happy mindset.

An attitude of negativity will only make things worse and your constant setbacks and bad luck will be a self-fulfilling prophecy that only keeps you in a hellish prison of your own mind.

Keep a gratitude journal. It’s a key to a kingdom of riches that await you.

Be Grateful For Your Challenges

Even when times are challenging, seek to find something to be grateful for. You’ve just started a new exercise regimen to lose weight and your legs ache?

That’s fine. At least you have a pair of legs that work. It’s just a matter of time till they get stronger. See… this simple shift in thinking motivates you to do better rather than hate yourself for letting your health slide.

Help Others

Here’s a hard truth – there will ALWAYS be people worse off than you. It could be financial worries, emotional turbulence, health issues, etc. We’re all fighting our own battles, but some definitely have it harder than others.

By lending an ear to those in need and doing what you can to help them, you’ll feel empowered and happy that you were able to assist someone else. There’s immeasurable power in helping your fellow man.

It not only helps them, but it helps you too. You’re never be totally broken, if you are able to help someone else… and if you can help them, you can help you.

And this knowledge will keep you going even when times are bad.

The pointers above are just the tip of the iceberg. Many books have been written on the power of gratitude and there are so many practices from journaling to yoga intentions to much more where gratitude is used to elevate you to the next level.

Do your research and make gratitude at work and at home a part of your life.

Whatever you want in life will require discipline to achieve and maintaining a healthy work life balance is a small part of that. And if you want to know more about harnessing the power of self-discipline, then check out the featured resource below for a free report; download, read it and take action 🙂

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Are You Addicted To Work?

Are You Addicted To Work?

Are You Addicted To Work?

Work addiction is just like most other addictions. It’s hard to break and you’ll need to be mindful about it at all times so that you can wean yourself off this addiction.

The good news is that unlike smoking or drug addiction, it’s easier to stop being a workaholic. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy… and in these times, with the workload and stresses that abound, Jack just might go mad if he doesn’t take a break.

The first step to understanding why you’re addicted to work will be to self-reflect on why you’re doing what you’re doing.

Understanding Your Feelings

Very often, there are feelings of guilt or fear associated with working too much. You may feel guilty at not earning enough to provide for your family. Or maybe you’re working long hours just to please your boss because you fear losing your job.

If you’re an entrepreneur who works 12 to 16-hour days just to speed up the process and earn six figures a month, your lack of patience might be taking a toll on your physical and mental health.

Once you understand what’s making you work such long hours, you’ll be able to understand how to fix the root cause of the problem. In some cases, it would be a good idea to speak to a professional for guidance.

Following A Schedule

The best way to break work addiction will be to have a fixed schedule that you blindly follow. This will mean starting work at the same time every day and stopping at the same time.

Ideally, you shouldn’t be working more than 8 or 9 hours a day. You could push it up to 12 hours, but not beyond that. Even 12 hours is extreme.

If you work a day job, leave the moment work ends. Staying longer at the office is not a reflection of your dedication, but a display of your lack of productivity.

All work you need to complete for the day needs to get done within the working hours. Then it’s time for you to switch off and wind down.

You MUST be extremely strict with this routine of starting and stopping work at the same time daily. This will help you break your addiction to work and help you to let go of the need to keep hustling and grinding to do more and more to a point where it’s a never-ending cycle.

Increasing Productivity

You can get more done in a shorter time by increasing your productivity. Very often, people spend time at the water cooler gossiping, or attending unnecessary meetings that are time wasters.

Eliminate all time-wasting activities from your work schedule. Use a pomodoro timer to keep you on track and focused.

You want to be doing work that matters and not just ‘busy work’ that makes it look like you’re working – but what you’re doing is irrelevant, and you’ll need to spend more time doing the relevant work later.

Delegating

Whatever can be automated, should be automated. Whatever can be delegated, should be delegated.

Time is your most important resource. Micromanaging and perfectionism will only stress you out. Pass off your mundane tasks to someone else if you can, and only focus on the highly important tasks that matter.

You may need to pay for software or hire help (workers, freelancers, etc.) to handle your workload. The investment will pay for itself many times over by freeing up your time so that you’re not overworked.

Exercise

Exercise is fantastic for giving you a mental break from the stresses at work. It’ll also release dopamine in your body.

Try to end every workday with a 20-minute exercise session. It could be yoga or sprints or just some bodyweight training. These 20 minutes will help your body stretch the muscles, get the heart pumping and the blood flowing.

You’ll feel better and less stressed out. You’ll also have something to look forward to after work, provided you enjoy the activity you’re doing. So, find one that’s fun.

“Workaholics are addicted to activity; super achievers are committed to results.”

– Charles Garfield

Are You In Denial About Being A Workaholic?

Being a workaholic can have many negative repercussions in your life if you do not get your addiction under control. Just like most addictions, very often, the person who is addicted to work doesn’t see their addiction for what it is.

Their reasons for working so hard are often plausible on the surface. They’re trying to progress in life, or provide for their family or they love their job and so on.

While all these reasons sound good, the results in their life reflect something totally different. They’ve let their health slide because they’re overworking themselves.

Relationship with the spouse is strained and they’re a stranger to their family members. They’re also highly stressed out and life seems to have lost its purpose… and work is the only thing keeping them going.

It can be extremely hard admitting to yourself that you’re a workaholic. A few common signs have been listed below. If you agree with 2 or more of them, you’re probably a workaholic and will need to take steps to remedy this problem.

You’re Always Working

This is the most obvious sign. You can easily work 12 to 14 hours a day and it seems normal to you. In some cases, it could go up to 16 hours or more.

While some minimum wage jobs have 12-hour shifts, these are mandated by the company, and you’re given rest days too.

However, when you’re working from home and subjecting yourself to such long hours daily with minimal rest, you’re a workaholic.

You Have No Time For Your Family

Most workaholics put their family commitments in second place. Work always comes first. Family events, communication, dinner time, etc. are all distractions that get in the way of the work.

A workaholic believes that his family is holding him/her down when they’re desperately trying to provide for them. It’s a strange contradiction – because in the process of providing for their family, they almost end up losing them.

If you often let down your friends and family because of work, you just might be a workaholic.

What’s A Holiday?

Workaholics are so busy working they rarely even think of taking a vacation. If the last time you went on a holiday was years ago, you’re probably a workaholic.

You Think About Work All The Time

If you do go on a vacation, but keep thinking about work, you’re definitely a workaholic.

Be where you are and enjoy the mental break. Leave the stress of work at the workplace.

A workaholic thinks about work while having their meals or talking to others or even watching TV. They can’t think of anything else besides their work commitments.

Addicted To Stimulants

Most workaholics are either addicted to caffeine, alcohol or nicotine.

Very often, caffeine is used to keep them alert so that they can keep going even when they’re tired.

Alcohol and cigarettes help them to calm down because the stress at work gets to them and these deleterious habits are their coping mechanisms.

You’re A Perfectionist

Workaholics tend to be perfectionists, or they have unrealistically high standards for themselves. The work can always be better and improved upon.

They dislike delegating their work because they don’t want to lose control and feel like others will not be able to do as good a job as them. As a result, their hands are full and their workload never decreases.

If you see yourself displaying any of these signs, it’s time to accept that you’re a workaholic and take steps to fix the problem. Speak to a professional and find alternatives to your way of life.

Recognition and acceptance of the problem is the first step. From there, it’s just a matter of better time management, increasing your productivity and learning to delegate more so that you can maintain a good work-life balance.

Whatever you want in life will require discipline to achieve and maintaining a healthy work life balance is a small part of that. And if you want to know more about harnessing the power of self-discipline, then check out the featured resource below for a free report; download, read it and take action 🙂

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Are Your Work Life Balance Goals Too Big?

Are Your Work Life Balance Goals Too Big?

Are Your Work Life Balance Goals Too Big?

Lao Tzu once said, “Govern a nation as you would cook a small fish. Don’t overdo it.”

This saying is very true and applies to us when it comes to governing our lives too. Society these days is extremely stressful and moves at a breakneck pace.

We want more, we want it faster and very often, we want it yesterday. We want to be the best and have the most in the least amount of time.

Our expectations of instant gratification and our constant need to outdo ourselves has taken a toll on millions of people who are stressed out and lead unbalanced lives.

Mental health issues are at an all-time high. With the advent of technology and this era having the most conveniences available, you’d expect life to be easier… and yet it’s more difficult and burdensome than ever before.

The key to achieving work-life balance in this insane world, will be to adopt a few tips and abide by them like your life depended on it.

Stop Aiming For Perfection

There’s a saying that ‘perfectionism is self-abuse of the highest order’ and that’s undeniable. With social media so prevalent, people often feel a need to appear perfect to others. They seek validation like never before.

Filters are used for photos. Extreme measures are taken to portray a glossy lifestyle that’s worth of a magazine cover.

Yet, reality is often dull and dreary. Once you stop trying to please the masses and expect to be perfect, you’ll be less stressed out and be able to achieve some balance in your life.

While it’s good to challenge yourself to do the best you can at work, aiming for perfectionism will stagnate your progress and leave you feeling drained.

Trying To Do Too Much

There’s only so much you can do. Trying to have a million dollars in the bank account, washboard abs, a beautiful supermodel as a wife and fame all at the same time is highly unlikely to happen for most people.

Very few people achieve all these goals, and yet, these outliers are held as the paradigm of success instead of being treated as exceptions to the rule.

Most people struggle to control their eating habits. Just reining this one habit under control will be a Herculean task.

So, go slow and try not to do everything at once. Consistency and slow progress will get you better results than going hard until you’re on the verge of breaking down.

Don’t be a victim of unrealistic expectations. Write down your goals and make plans on achieving them – but give yourself a reasonable amount of time.

Want six pack abs? No problem. Try and get them over 8 months instead of 3. If you’re overweight, then give yourself a year. What’s the rush?

You have time. Don’t mess up your work-life balance by spending hours at the gym and neglecting other areas of your life.

Break Them Down Into Bite-Sized Chunks

Like they say, you eat an elephant one bite at a time. In the same way, break down your goals into micro-goals with multiple checkpoints along the way until you reach your destination.

Taking on more than you can handle today will deplete you of energy for tomorrow. If you experience burnout, you may lose all interest and end up in a slump for weeks which will set you back further.

Slow and steady wins the race. Rome wasn’t built in a day, but they were laying bricks every hour. Approach life the same way and remember to rest and relax in equal proportions to your work.

Do You Have Trouble Switching Off from Work?

This is an all-too-common scenario that affects thousands of people all over the world and it’s especially prevalent in entrepreneurs and artists. You love your work so much that you just can’t switch off.

You’re either working more than you planned to or you can’t stop thinking about work even when you’re trying to sleep or in the middle of other activities such as eating, watching a movie and so on.

Confucius once said, “Choose a job you love, and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.”

While that is true when it comes to finding job satisfaction and not dreading work, it doesn’t give one the license to obsess about work at the expense of everything else.

You still have to look after your health, your relationships, etc. Work is a means to an end and not an end in itself. Below you’ll find 5 ways to help you switch off from work and find peace and satisfaction in other activities.

Have Interesting Plans

Try and create an interesting life for yourself. If you have something fun to do after your work, you’ll be more engaged in the activity rather than doing mental gymnastics thinking about your work.

People who work from home should make an effort to be more social and go out occasionally so that they don’t end up living in their head all the time. Even introverts would do well to go outside for a walk and take in new sights and sounds.

The change of scenery will help to break monotony and give you a mental break from the constant whirring of gears in your own mind.

Be fun. Do fun things and enjoy life. It’s not all about work.

Avoid Checking Your Phone And Emails

Avoid checking your emails and answering work related calls once your working hours are over. You don’t want to risk getting sucked back into ‘work mode’.

Very often, people check on their emails even during their leisure hours without understanding that they’re actually sabotaging themselves. It’s even worse if you’re answering the emails or getting worked up over a difficult customer or situation.

Handle work issues during your working hours and switch off all access to you once you’re done for the day. It’s imperative that you draw boundaries if you wish to mentally switch off from work on cue.

Leave Work At Work

Avoid discussing work or work-related incidents when you’re back home. Find new topics to speak to your family about. Discuss plans for the next vacation. Or ask them what they’re watching on TV or how their day went.

The magic of life is in these moments when you show an interest in what those around you are doing. Time flies fast and the work will always be there… but those close to you may not.

Appreciate the time you have with them. In time to come, it’s these memories that you’ll fondly look back on.

Start A New Hobby

Pick up a new hobby that you enjoy. It could be something you’ve always wanted to do. Rock climbing, yoga, knitting, dancing, learning a new language, etc. are all opportunities to stretch your mind and body.

Try not to be competitive about it and just seek to enjoy the hobby for what it is – something to pour your passion into. It shouldn’t become a new job.

When you have a hobby you love, you’ll be glad to leave work and go work on your passion.

At the end of the day, work is a part of your life. It is not life. Understanding the difference will help you to treat work as an important activity but not an overarching one. Find balance and both your work and life will improve.

“Is there a place you can go to break away for a little while? If you haven’t yet built your tree house, it’s never too late to start.”

Gina Greenlee, Postcards and Pearls: Life Lessons from Solo Moments on the Road

Whatever you want in life will require discipline to achieve and maintaining a healthy work life balance is a small part of that. And if you want to know more about harnessing the power of self-discipline, then check out the featured resource below for a free report; download, read it and take action 🙂

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