Staying Balanced
Balance is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. After an impromptu two week hiatus from all things blogging and YouTube, coupled with a week of birthday celebrations, I feel like I’m finally finding my way back into my usual routine. While part of me was feeling completely uninspired, unmotivated and tired, another part of me really wanted to get back into the habit of creating things on a regular basis. One thing that really re-sparked my excitement around creating was this lovely gift from Mejuri. I’m wearing their new Black Spinel Necklace which is said to help you find your balance and move forward. I thought it would be fitting to share with you my personal tips and insights into staying balanced while juggling work, your passion projects and life in general.
Keep a Routine
I am someone who relies heavily on having a set routine for the weekdays and weekends. This ensures that I eat real food, pay my bills, get (roughly) as much sleep as I need and still have time to write a blog post and veg out on the couch when I need to. Of course, I don’t plan every minute of my day because I’m also someone who needs a lot of downtime to recharge. With my introverted tendencies, that downtime is usually separate from social time. Finding the right amount of both is really important and will be different for everyone. I can’t think of how many magazine articles I read, thinking “I’m doing it wrong,” while missing the point all together. A routine is a really personal thing and it’s just through trial and error that you’ll figure out what works for you, keeps you feeling happy and healthy, and helps you accomplish everything in this busy life.
Know Your Motivation
As you may have gathered by now, I am a big advocate of goal-setting. But there are different approaches that will work best for different people. Some people really benefit from reflecting and setting themselves new goals to work towards each month. This is something I practiced here on the blog for a while before scraping that idea completely. A big reason for this is that I realized that I’m more motivated by (much) bigger picture thinking and goal-setting and had been since I was younger. I wrote a whole blog post about why I’m embracing the 5 Year Plan and how that is better able to motivate me. I’ve managed to translate that one big picture into monthly, weekly, even daily goals that are much more realistic for me. Having that one big picture also gives me daily motivation to accomplish all the smaller tasks too. For some people, a monthly or yearly goal-setting model will work better.
Be Kind To Yourself
I can’t stress this one enough, as I am totally guilty of being too hard on myself when I feel like I’m at the end of my tether. And I think it’s something I’ve started to prioritize as I get older. A good place to start is by setting more realistic expectations for yourself and accepting when you can’t accomplish everything in a day because your simply tired. That’s not a cop-out, it’s a useful bit of information that your body is communicating to yourself and you should listen. Under the same umbrella is the idea that you should celebrate your little victories and give yourself a knowing nod of approval when you’ve earned it! Sometimes you will be your only cheerleader so be a good one.
