Image via WikipediaIs there such thing as work life balance ? Can that ‘to-do’ list balance perfectly on the tip of your golf clubs and playdough ? (i.e. work, relaxation and quality time with kiddies)
In my world I often have to remind myself what my priorities are. It is somewhat of a natural inclination to want to do it all. It sometimes take the self discipline and precision of a black belt karate champ to stay focused on the tasks at hand.
Here’s an
exercise that often helps me visualize the need to prioritize :
The next time you go shopping take a good look at all the possible items there are on the shelves and then take a good look at your shopping cart. Clearly you will need to be making choices as you walk around those aisles as all the potential items wont fit into that cart. You get the idea already don’t you ? You can’t fill your cart all the way up on aisle one or you’ll be in trouble around aisle 3.
Same too in life, for the majority of us it’s volunteering for the PTA or heading the Food Drive just like it’s fruity sugar circles or fruity sugar stars. Or if you can handle fruity sugar circles and fruity sugar circles then there is no way you have the space for fruity sugar puffs AKA heading the Annual Bake Sale.
If only those hectic weeks in our lives came with a shopping list, things would be so much easier. It can sometimes get tough deciding what those ‘to-do’s’ of yours can be left on the shelf until next week and which ones must go into the cart this week.
I don’t have a magic formula however by tweaking those ‘to-do’s’ based on the priorities of the week or month you will have a better idea of what gets priorities.
So, is there such a thing as ‘life balance’ ? By being focused on our prioritized goals and cultivating our ‘to-don’t’ lists and fully understanding that there will always be more we want to put in ‘our carts’ AKA our lives, we all will be one step closer towards that shiny work-life balance checkout.
