Balance

Balance is forever the struggle. You get one of the areas or relationships in your life down and another experiences trouble.  Being a single mom who works outside of the office, it can feel like I am never “off-duty” and like I am never giving anyone, including me, 100%. I think balance comes from prioritization. Not just the “do this first” kind, but the “these are the three things on a list of 1000 I can accomplish and so I will work on those.”  We don’t like to admit that there are things that will not get done. We want to do it all.

Jon Acuff’s book Finish talks about this idea in terms of setting goals.  We don’t typically have a lot of “extra” time on our hands. But we set new, really great, and really valuable goals, without making time for them.  At some point you have to say where that four hours a week you are now spending at the gym is going to come from.  If not, it won’t get done.  Prioritization is the same way.  When you say X is more important than Y and Y is more important than Z, at some point you have to say, I have enough time to do six things on this list of ten and he other four are not going to get done by me.

Now you can delegate it by assigning it out (kids now take out the trash and do the laundry), hiring someone to do it (hire a maid or subscribe to a meal plan), reschedule it for another time, or determine it won’t get done.  By letting go of something that is logistically impossible and not important enough to make your priority list, you free yourself from the guilt hat will come when you don’t do it.

I read Finish a year ago and am still working on implementing this. But I recognize the value in what he has put to paper.  And I keep working on it.

How do you prioritize the important part s of your life, your relationships, and your projects?