Living a “Balanced” Life (Life Management Week 2)

Still on my personal branding kick, I turned to my fellow blogger and Life Coach, Sarah:

Living a “balanced” life.

As a life coach for moms, there are 2 phrases I hear multiple times a day during coaching sessions with my clients. The first, “mommy guilt” and the second,“craving a balanced life”. I understand why. Especially because, I used to be
that person…the person that craved balance yet never seemed to find it. Oddly enough, though, everyone else seemed to have it all figured out. So what was my problem?

It wasn’t until I hired a life coach, then became one myself, that I truly understood what living a balanced life was and why everyone wanted it so badly. This is possible because life coaching is all about personal development: Self reflection, Self love, Taking action, Living your truth.

Just as there are many pieces to a puzzle, there are many pieces that makeup our lives as a whole.

Pieces like our careers, our finances, and the relationship we have with our significant other. If we feel pretty confident about a certain area in our life, we would probably rate it anywhere from an 8 to a 10. (10 being completely satisfied) So even if every area in our lives is a 10, except for 1, we might feel like our whole life is in shambles.

Since I coach moms, I tend to work on the areas of financial, social, and relationship with spouse the most. And sometimes, we may think our imbalance stems from one area but upon further digging, we realize it’s another.

Example, we might not have the highest rating for our social life and we may blame ourselves for not making a better effort or our friends for not including us or we might even blame our spouse for not helping out more so we actually feel like we can go out.  But upon further digging with personal development and self-reflection, we discover it’s actually how we feel about our financial situation that keeps us from going out and being social with our friends.

What’s my point? Some things aren’t always what they seem and it’s easy to jump to conclusions as to why we may be feeling an imbalance.

So, if you are someone who feels an imbalance in your life, instead of always assuming you know where it stems from or being confused and frustrated because you have no idea where it comes from, I offer you this…invest in
yourself.

Spend time with yourself and get real with who you are and what you want in life.

Not sure how to do that, here are a few tips:
• Identify the different areas in your life. What makes you whole?
• Once you have identified these areas, rate them on a scale from 1-10.
• Identify the 2 lowest ranking areas. Focus on them, first.
• Ask yourself what you like about each area. Then, ask yourself what would like to change.
• After identifying what needs to change, ask yourself what actions need to take place so these changes actually happen.
• Then, make it happen.
(I have an amazing worksheet I give my clients that identifies 8 areas to start with and assists in the process I mention above. Here’s the link to download it for free.)

Worksheet

Even though this exercise rocks and definitely helps us achieve a sense of balance, the reality is we will never have a balanced life. The best we can do is a have a sense of it. We get that sense by understanding who we currently are,
what we currently want, and keeping in mind the goals we currently have to make it happen.

Life is constantly moving forward. What works for us now, may not in the future.

So, for me, I use this exercise as a quarterly check in and encourage my clients to do the same. Again, we will never have a perfectly, balanced life but understanding all of the areas that make us whole and where we stand,
definitely gives us a better sense of control, hence, that balance.

And these principles go for any area you are currently struggling with. If you are struggling with the relationship you have with your spouse, for example, ask yourself these questions.
• What would make me happy with my relationship?
• What isn’t working with my relationship?
• Am I basing what I want in the relationship off of my own thoughts and ideas or someone else’s? (Be honest.)
• Have I communicated to my spouse what I want and how I am working to make that happen?
• Have I asked my spouse what would make them happy in this relationship and so forth?

These questions really can be used for every area in your life.

At the end of the day, in order to have the sense of balance in our lives, we just need to be clear on who we are, what we want, and how to get it. All while honoring our truth.

Sometimes what we want, doesn’t fit into what other people think is acceptable, and that can defer us from living our truth. But that’s not the path to our happiness. Living our lives on purpose and honoring ourselves, and always
coming from a place of love, is.

Big thanks to Jana, for asking me to contribute to her blog. I appreciate the opportunity.

Should you have any questions about this article or the exercise I provided, feel free to contact me. Just mention that you are one of Jana’s readers and I would be happy to chat. hello@sarahjordancpc.com

Bio:
Hi, I’m Sarah!

I am a mother, a wife, a middle sister, an aunt, a daughter and poodle mom. I am a certified professional life coach, owner of Blessings and Lessons Coaching and host of the Homework to Happiness Podcast, Founder of Mommy Real a blog for moms to share motherhood stories and inspire other moms.

I am a stay at home mom and I am also fortunate enough to have a job that I love. As a life coach, I have made it my mission to create a space for moms, where self love is rediscovered by simply keeping it real, with personal development and connection.

Because, love starts with self love and it’s my mission to help moms truly understand that self care and self love are not selfish…they are essential.  And I truly believe that the only way we can truly achieve this, is if we are
real with ourselves about what it is we want and need and the journey to make it happen.

If you’d like to connect, please visit my website sarahjordancpc.com and follow me on Instagram. @sarahjordancpc