Wednesday, September 28, 2016

BALANCE, not perfection

 "a happy life is not built upon perfection, but BALANCE"

I am a proud work in progress. Instead of striving for perfection, I focus on achieving balance. If I lived every day trying to be perfect, it would only be a matter of time before I went crazy from disappointment. 

There are so many things in life that are out of our immediate control, so instead of focusing on keeping it all together, I choose to concentrate on managing my emotions, knowing what is truly important, and maintaining balance in all aspects of my life. 

Without balance, it's easy to lose perspective. You can become anxious, angry, upset, sad, or lonely. You can lash out and act irrationally, ultimately making poor decisions that you deeply regret. When your life is balanced, it's easier to accept things exactly as they are and to not let your emotions control you. 

Here are things you can do in order to maintain balance in the different areas of your life: 

Listen to everyone's ideas. Act as a mentor or an advocate for others who may feel lost or not comfortable enough to speak up. Help where you can by identifying issues and collaborating on innovative ways to solve them. Majority of my career growth has been fueled by my ability to encourage and inspire others, putting the importance of their growth before my own. 

Monitor your spending habits and be more conscious about cutting back on frivolous spending. Have you been eating out too much? Do you really need the latest Tech gadget? In a nutshell, brainstorm ways to save more and spend less. Your relationship with money will improve overtime, if you stay mindful. I'm sure you'll be ecstatic with your more stable account balance. 

Expand your mind and embrace learning. I actively seek guidance from others who know more than I do, whether it's asking for advice or book and blog recommendations. I never miss an opportunity to learn something new or gain more insight. 

You also need to keep your body functioning at an optimal level. Do your best to eat as clean as you can, workout, and get plenty of rest. I won't lie. I do get lazy and skip a workout every now and then. I'm also known to throw clean eating out the window to indulge in unreasonable amounts of Dim Sum (or anything else that I may be craving). BUT I always make up for it! I squeeze in that extra workout or double up on days when I know I've been slacking to make sure I burn off the extra calories. 

Stay connected with your family, friends, and significant other. We all have busy lives, but you should make time for the people who are important to you. Simply asking how their week is going or letting them know when you've been thinking about them can make all the difference. It always brightens my day when someone I love reaches out to me out of the blue.    

Be spontaneous. Try new things. Do things that scare you! Life should be an adventure, and you should do things that make you feel happy to be alive. On the flip side, pay attention to your body and take the time to relax and recharge when you're feeling exhausted. 

I'm still learning to be more daring, and I don't want to look back on my life and regret all of the chances I didn't take. But when I need it, I'm not ashamed of spending an entire Sunday lying in bed watching Netflix and cuddling with my dogs. 

The necklace (pictured above) I wear around my neck every day is a reminder for me to keep striving for balance. The different areas of my life would be chaos without it. Maintaining balance is my way of loving myself and choosing to focus on what makes me happy. 

Balance is how I measure my self-awareness. My life may never be perfect, but it doesn't have to be. I will continue to do my best to be more self-aware, because I think it's essential to understand why you think, say, and do the things that you do. How else can you improve and grow as a person if you don't know where to start?