Consistency Part 2: Maintaining Balance
Ever get to the weekend and feel like you don’t want to do anything, you just want to sit and laze the day away? This is not balance - you overworked yourself. Or you get to the weekend and by Sunday night you feel it wasn’t enough, like you didn’t really accomplish what you wanted or even needed for yourself? This, too, is not balance.
Weekends shouldn’t be for doing nothing so that you can give everything during the week. Nor should weekends be for doing everything you didn’t do during the week. Both are unbalanced approaches.
In Buzz words: Balance & Self-Care, I shared a process for defining and creating a balanced lifestyle for yourself. Here, I’m saying you can’t have balance without consistency. You must work to have balance every single day so that you can also make the most of and enjoy your weekends in a balanced way. Remember, consistency is in how often you act on the goals, routines, or habits you are taking on - in this case balance on weekends only (inconsistent) versus balance every day (consistent).
Often times we go through each day like a to-do list - moving from one task to the next without even thinking twice and certainly not thinking of ourselves. We overwork ourselves, convincing ourselves along the way that this is for our future - a better future. Well we have it all wrong.
“We tend to do this thing where we project everything into the future. Our happiness is in the future. Our fulfillment of love is in the future. Our purpose is in the future...and we’re constantly just trying to get there. But we fail to realize that these things are not a final destination - they’re a journey. Love is here. Fulfillment is here. Purpose is here. It’s face to face with us every day. It’s in the places we’ve already been assigned to. We just see it all as mundane because we’re so used to it. Your purpose is not a destination in the far-off future, it’s living in each day in everything surrounding you. Make the most of it.”
Balance is something we must work to achieve every day - you must work to fuel your heart, mind, body, and soul in ways that allow you to sustain the work you do every day, in ways that allow you to be the best version of yourself and maximize your effectiveness in whatever it is you do for a living. Whether it’s a life in creating, leading, building, parenting, teaching, sharing, training, speaking, or writing, you need time to step away and do something different. This will make you better, I promise. You need to find balance and you need to find it every day - in everything you do. Don’t tell me there aren’t enough hours in the day - life is too short! Who knows what will happen tomorrow so why not take advantage? Why not be happy? Why not work to be the best version of yourself? Every day you wake up is a new opportunity to live your best life. Are you happy with yours? I am.
