Take Back Control of Your Life and Put Yourself in Charge

Is your life out of balance?

From time to time, everyone’s life can get a little out of control. You spend too much time focusing on work, and your family life suffers. Or you spend too much money on your social life, and your finances suffer. Maybe you’re running yourself ragged and your health is taking a back seat.

So what can you do to stop this chaos?

Regain balance in your life with these strategies:

1. Identify the different parts of your life. If you were going to divide your life into columns, what would the column headings be? For most of us, they would include family, work, health, finances, and social life. You might have additional categories such as music, spirituality, and volunteering.
2. Start with your health. Is your health negatively impacted by your lifestyle? Are you getting enough sleep? Are you eating properly? How much exercise are you getting each day? Have you been to the doctor lately? How is your body weight? What can you do to enhance your health?
3. Evaluate your family life. Does your family only get attention when you have time left over from your other obligations? Are you spending enough time with your partner and children? What does each of them need right now? How can you provide it to them? How can you enrich your relationship with your family?
4. Is your social life getting too much attention or not enough? Have you lost track of your friends? Is your family upset that you’re spending too much time socialising? Or maybe your overactive social life is causing challenges in other areas of your life. Consider what changes would help balance out your social life.
5. Take a look at your values and priorities. What is most important to you? You can’t have it all unless your wants are quite limited. Make a list of your values and priorities. Alter your life to emphasise those things.
6. Where are you wasting time? Perhaps you can bring your life back into balance by freeing up more time for what’s most important to you. First, identify how you’re wasting time and eliminate or minimise those activities.
7. Learn to say “no”. There’s not enough time in the day to say “yes” to everything that crosses your path. This goes back to your priorities. One of the most effective ways to regain balance in your life is to eliminate the unnecessary. What can you live without? What will you be glad to get off your plate?
8. Be grateful for what you have. When you’re feeling overwhelmed, it can be easy to see the dark side of things. Remind yourself of how much you have in your life already. With a positive outlook, you’ll have a better chance of making progress.
9. Make a plan. Once you have a few ideas, make a plan on how you intend to put them into practice. Avoid the mistake of believing that identifying the cure is a cure in itself. It’s necessary to take action.

Note to self:

Everything gets out of balance once in a while, including your life.

The key is recognising the challenge you face and setting priorities.

Eliminate those things that don’t add value to your life so you have more time for the things that do.

Take control of your life and create a life that truly fulfills you.