Friday, 10 January 2014

More on cultivating a balanced life....

I find it so interesting that time and again, when I plant a seed of a thought in my head I immediately find that events and people come into my life that provide more direction, more information and sometimes the answers to the questions I have been asking.  It simply reinforces the phenomenon I have recently been reading about where when you ask for something the Universe finds a way to provide it.  I also think the saying “when the student is ready, the teacher appears” is so true.  Since my post on my goal for 2014, being to find a balance in all elements of my life, I have come across two very useful strategies to maintain focus on this balance.  This blog entry addresses both of those.
The first is the idea of the “Wheel of Life.”  I had seen this principle before – possibly while doing a Meyer-Briggs course as the principle is a trademark of the Meyer Resource Group Inc.  It involves mapping the various aspects of your life on a wheel and then charting how effectively you focus on each of these elements.  It allows you to visually see the areas of your life that you are neglecting but would like to put more focus on or improve.  Life aspects to include are suggested as:
Relationships
Mental attitude
Finances
Health
Society
Career
Spiritual
The structure of the wheel is circle, with up to 7 lines from the radius out to the rim representing the various facets of our lives.  The centre of the wheel represents total dissatisfaction and the outer rim on the wheel represents 100% satisfaction.  For each facet of your life place a dot along the satisfaction axis, then join all the dots. You will then easily see where the wheel becomes ‘wonky” and unbalanced and where you might place greater emphasis to improve that facet.  This can be done once or twice a year, and is a good way to see at a glance how in-balance you feel your life is at that moment.  More information on the Wheel of Life can be found atwww.mindtools.com .

The second idea, is that of developing a weekly framework or structure around the most important roles we hold in our lives; the roles of mother, wife, daughter, employee, friend etc.  This suggestion came from Angie “Speedy” Spiteri’s book “The Secrets oMastering Time”.  Angie suggests that by getting time for all the things that are important to you, you will feel well rounded, more satisfied and happy in the now.  Sounds like exactly what I’m after.
The first step in the framework is deciding on what your roles are.  The second step is to decide on the goals for each role.  Eg. As a mother I would like to help my children each evening with their school work.  The goals could cover a 12 month period, which is ideal for me as the timeframe for my  personal goals then coincide with my career and work objectives.  The third step is to start moving in the right direction by asking yourself “What is the single most important step I can take in each role this week to have the greatest and most significant impact on my goals.”
Then the idea is to translate the outcome of the third step into a schedule (using Outlook) for a week.  I can colour code the activities by role, so that when I look over the week I can see at a glance which colours are dominating and where I am placing my focus.
The framework should include
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Time for important project and roles: what you need to do and when you are going to do it
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Cyclical work and regular meetings: aim to do the same type of activity at the same time every day.  Group similar tasks together.
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Time for unplanned events
I may need to train others to support me (eg. by not scheduling appointments before I get into the office, or on my working from home day).  Angie suggests that “people get used to what you do.  If you say you are going to cll and then call when you say you will, many will stop emailing-ringing-visiting and will wait for you to get back to them.” Angie has encouraged her readers to share their ideas and frameworks as www.facebook.com/time.equals.moneywhich is where I’m headed now to have a squiz!
If you have any suggestions for building a framework to maintain balance in your life, or to help you to review whether or not all the important facets of your life are in balance I would love to hear them. Send me a post of drop me an email at livewelllivesmart@gmail.com

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