Life/work balance

Is there even such a thing? And would we want it?

 Life is full of imbalances. Obviously, it's not good to be a workaholic but sometimes work will take priority and at other times family may take priority, such as your daughter's dance recital or your son's drum recital. Hearing 20 kids play the drums for 2 hours straight is an experience you'll never forget!

The key is to control the imbalances and the best way to do that is to have goals that you want to achieve in the various areas of your life.

There are 168 hours in a week, but to make it easy let's call it 160. If you have a full time job, 1/4 of your week is already booked. If you sleep 6-7 hours a night that's 42-49 hours a week...56 if you sleep a full 8 hours...maybe a little more on the weekends. So you're looking at 40-60 hours of your week sleeping. Then there's family, personal time, church, volunteering, eating, bathing/grooming, running a part-time business, and whatever else you want to add. You can't devote equal time to everything, especially since more than half of your week is used up just by working and sleeping.

Create goals in each area of your life. You may have a goal to take a family vacation. Or lose weight. Or build your business. How many goals? That's up to you. However many you need. But we will only work on 3-5 total at any one time. And we'll do that by creating a 90 day blitz.

The 90 day blitz

This is often used in business, but there's no reason that you can't apply it to any area of your life. Pick 3-5 goals that you want to accomplish in the next 90 days. It will be easier if you have some long term goals that you want to accomplish. The goals can be from different areas in your life or maybe all will come from only one area. You will be unbalanced during that time but you'll know it ahead of time and it's something that you elected to do so you're in control.

I like the 90 Day Quick Plan by David Horsager. For each goal that you want to accomplish, just follow these steps:

90-Day Quick Plan

1.Where are we now? ___________________________________
2. Where do we want to be in 90 days?______________________
3. Why are we going? ___________________________________ 
4. How are we going to get there?__________________________ 
5. How? _____________________________________________ 
6. How? _____________________________________________ 

As you can see it's pretty straightforward. You start with where you are and then figure out where you want to be in 90 days. Then you figure out why you want to do it. If you have a strong enough why...what's often called "the why that makes you cry", the more likely you are to accomplish that goal. Questions 4-6 are the same question. You want to keep asking how until you get to some actionable item...something you can add to your to-do list or calendar. I read once that you might have to ask "how" seven times, so this list may end up being a total of 10 questions long.

Example

Let's say you want to lose 15 pounds in the next 90 days for your high school reunion.

1. I weigh 195 pounds
2. I weigh 180 pounds (you want to put your goal in the present tense. Using "I am" statements is very powerful)
3. I want to look my best for my high school reunion (oftentimes you'll have to dig deeper here to get to the real why...maybe an old flame will be there. Or maybe you were heavy in high school and it was traumatic for you.)
4. I will eat better
5. I will eat out less often
6. I will eat dinner at home at least 5 days a week. This is something you can put on your calendar

Do this for each of the goals that you want to accomplish and then check them off every day.

At the end of 90 days check your results. Did you meet your goals? Often you won't but you should at least be closer...if you followed the items on your to-do list or calendar. 

Time to do it again. If you didn't meet one or more of your goals, you can try it again. Or come up with all new goals. It's up to you since you're in control.

Interesting days

Today - https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/watermelon-day/ Yum!

Tomorrow - https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/social-security-day/, https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/coast-guard-day/, and https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/assistance-dog-day/

Next Monday - https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/lion-day/ Lions have been in the news a lot lately...unfortunately it was very sad news. It's also https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/skyscraper-appreciation-day/ I was in the World Trade Center almost exactly 27 years ago...8/8/88 (which is the day after the 100th anniversary of the revolving door). And https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/smores-day/ another summer treat. Nothing like roasting hot dogs for dinner and then marshmallows for dessert. And what better way to serve them than with graham crackers and chocolate. And it's https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/duran-duran-day/

And if that's all too much for you, you can just celebrate https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/lazy-day/

September 3 - https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/skyscraper-day/ As opposed to Skyscraper Appreciation Day! And it's https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/welsh-rarebit-day/ I can safely say that I've never had it