Here’s How to Achieve and Maintain Healthy Life Balance

Issue 8. January 20, 2023 ✨ Higher Power Coaching & Consulting ✨

So many people are seeking balance, especially given the new year and all those resolutions to “do better.”

What does “balance” mean exactly? And how do you get there?

Let’s use the metaphor of balancing on one foot to relate to what life balance looks like. When 0 balancing on one foot, you’re not standing stationary. The foot on the floor is not solidly planted flat on the floor the whole time. It’s continuously tipping back and forth.

What that’s doing is strengthening the muscles of your leg, which is what strengthens your leg. THAT is how you improve your balance, by continually doing that back and forth motion.

THAT is what balance looks like, with your body and in your life!

Balance does NOT look like you arriving at a certain point and staying just like that. It’s the continual back and forth where you do a little bit of adjusting here and there. THAT is what balance is.

It’s not a static point, it’s that continual adjusting here and there that IS the balance of life. The fact that you’re noticing and making adjustments is what tells you whether you’re on track for a balanced life or not. If you’re not even paying attention to how your life is going, then you can’t possibly have a balanced life.

Let’s say you want healthy work-life balance. It’s not going to look the same every week with working exactly 35 hours, going to the gym exactly five times, eating 21 perfectly healthy meals, do four social activities. 

There are going to be weeks when you have a project at work so you have to work more hours and take some time away from your family. Or maybe you volunteer for an organization and they have a big event coming up so you take some time off work or you skip going to the gym that week. 

In order to decide whether we’re living a balanced life, it makes more sense to look at a week or a month rather than a day because things come up (even when we live our lives ON PURPOSE).

I’d say ESPECIALLY if you live your life on purpose, because you’ll be encountering all the richness of life the more you get involved in things you value.

When you start learning how to balance on one leg you fall over a lot. What you do to catch yourself is you put that other foot down for just a moment to get you back to balancing, as often as you need.  

For me, the most important thing that helps me to maintain balance in my life is my nightly inventory. Even if you’re not willing to take an inventory on a nightly basis, you’ll have do some kind of regular check-in with yourself to maintain balance.

The way I coach my clients is to identify their top five values, then check in on a regular basis with themselves about how aligned they are with their values. If you use your values as a basis by which to live your life, they will guide you about what “balance” looks like for you. When your values change (which they often do as your life changes) then what balance looks like will change over time. So stop thinking that life balance is a static point that you’ll achieve and stay there. Real balance requires constant motion.

Things I don’t want to live without…

I am a Pampered Chef whore. There, I said it! I love the Pampered Chef company! I love so many of the kitchen gadgets and cookware. I went to my first PC party at the age of 27 and have been hooked every since! The first thing I bought was the garlic press and it continues to be a favorite – it put the clove in with the skin on and it comes out like no other garlic press I’ve ever used!
Some of my favorite items that I use daily include their spatulas (guaranteed not to stain!), and the measuring cups and spoons (which all come in fractions that most measuring things don’t – like ¾ of a cup or ½ Tablespoon). Many of their items have a lifetime guarantee, or at least guarantees longer than most kitchen items. But there’s so much more that I love – including the direct marketing model they use.