1. You haven’t defined what balance truly means to you.

If you’ve been wishing your life felt more balanced without defining what that looks like, it’s going to be difficult to achieve it. After all, balance feels different for all of us depending on our responsibilities, relationships, hobbies, and jobs. To kick things off, why not start by journaling your thoughts and feelings around balance. Visualize what it would look like if you actually achieved it. This will give you a much better idea of what you should be striving for.

2. You haven’t been practicing self-discipline.

Even though discipline sounds like the opposite of balance, it’s one of the best tools to help you feel on top of things. Without self-discipline, we often waste time, procrastinate, and fail to follow through with things. This only makes us feel overwhelmed, guilty, and totally unbalanced. Think about ways you might be lacking in self-discipline. How can you make tweaks in your life that will help you follow through with things you usually let slide? Try reducing distractions, getting clear on your priorities, and setting better personal boundaries. 

3. You aren’t being consistent with your actions.

Consistency is an important aspect of balance, even though it may not seem like much fun. Think about if you only ate salads for one week as part of a healthy eating plan, and the next week your diet was 100% McDonald's burgers. Lack of consistency in our actions is one of the reasons our lives often feel out of whack? Which areas of your life are you lacking consistency? Try to create consistency around the way you take care of yourself, especially with food, exercise, sleep, and relaxation. These areas have the biggest impact on your overall life balance.

4. You don’t plan out your weekly schedule.

When you forget to plan out the details of your schedule, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by everything you have to do. Planning is a way to ensure that you can take care of business AND take care of yourself. Though balance may seem like a go-with-the-flow kind of thing, sometimes planning is the only way to make it happen. Create a basic outline of how your week will look by including appointments, projects to work on, social/relationship time, and self-care. If you plan these things out in your schedule, it’s easier to stay on top of them during the week.

5. You aren’t taking proper care of yourself!

With everything you might be juggling (work, relationships, home life, etc.), the most important thing is to make time for is yourself. If you aren’t taking ample time to do what fills your soul away from your responsibilities, balance will always seem out of reach. It’s easy to create excuses about not having time for self-care, but even five minutes is better than nothing. If you practice self-discipline, stay consistent, and plan ahead, you’ll find that you can work self-care into your schedule.

 

Source: Catherine Beard, A Blissful Mind