Living a Balanced Life free essay sample

Have you ever had a time when you were making a good living, lived in a nice place, drove a nice car, took trips, had everything you needed and more and yet you were still unhappy? It wasnt that you were ungrateful for what you had, just something seemed wrong. You werent fulfilled, or some-thing, but you couldnt quite figure out what the problem was? Maybe youre in a situation like that now. You feel like you should be happy, who wouldnt given all that you have, but youre not. It simply means that your life is out of balance.Something has been shoved under the rug and forgotten about. It might be spending quality time with family or friends, or even just by yourself. It might be that youre not eating well enough to keep your body balanced. It might be that even though you make a good living, you dont love what you do. We will write a custom essay sample on Living a Balanced Life or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page If you look at the life of a celebrity, you can understand why they would be so unhappy. Their lives are totally out of balance. They spend years on the road. They dont have the time for important relationships and recreational time. Theyre always under pressure to be the star.Think about how you feel when youve put in a lot of hours at work and then have no energy left to give to your family. You dont have the energy to eat a good meal or get the exercise you need in order to have more energy. People are on the never-ending treadmill trying to get money. But money itself will not make you happy. Life is a delicate balance of relationships, emotions, desires, and responsibilities to others as well as to yourself. III. CONTENT 3. 1 Life Balance Starts With The Decisions We Make On April 14 1865 two men made a decision to walk into a bar.One wanted to just have a drink because he was bored and the other needed a drink because he wanted to calm his nerves. The bored man just wanted an escape. He just wanted a break from his thankless job. The other man new he had a job to do but wanted to kill time. He was working with others and they had planned on a certain time to fulfill their obligations. While the bored man continued to drink and talk with patrons the other man paid his tab and left. By now if you know your history you know the next scene. The Place is the Star Tavern, The bored man is John F. Parker President Abraham Lincolns ody guard. The Other man is John Wilkes Booth Lincolns assassin. I tell this story to show that every decision no matter how small it seems at the time has the ability to affect many more people. If you chose not to do something then you may chose not to get a paycheck that week. If you chose work over family you could lose your family. You need to know your limit and balance your decisions. I am not telling you to be overly cautious. What I want is for you to make good decisions often. 2. You Get What You Give Each of us is created with certain gifts that we are to use in the time we are here on earth.What I would like for you to see is that no matter you are, what you put into life is exactly what you get out. Jesus tells us that a good tree bears good fruit, and a bad tree gives bad fruit. Beyond that your attitude will determine how many friends you have and your level of relationships with these people. Your attitude at work will depend on whether or not you are advanced at work or whether you work at all. Your attitude toward learning will determine whether you spend time learning or not. We are very fortunate in America to live in a free society.We can chose to take advantage of the freedom we have and make a life that we were designed to live in the job we were designed to do. Or we can sit on the sidelines and complain about the lot we were cast and become miserable old curmudgeons who have no true friends and die mostly alone. Life is uncertain in that we do not know what tomorrow holds, but if you knew you would die on a certain day at a certain time would you choose to live a miserable unfulfilled life or one where you choose to use the talents you were given by God and live a joyful life doing what you were designed to do.Well here is some news, you are going to die someday so why not use the gifts God gave you and make something of what you are. If you let life happen to you you will probably lose. Sitting around and waiting to hit the lottery is not a long term goal. You have got to start paying attention to the calling that is in your heart, start setting goals, and start reading books to help you see beyond tomorrow when you realize you control your future and you start making better choices then you will start to see changes in your life that you never thought would happen. Here is the stuff you do not hear in goal setting seminars.There will be times when you think you have failed. These time of doubt come into every persons life. Unless you quit you have not failed. Mistakes and setbacks happen but they are not failures and you need to see them for what they are, setbacks. If you keep going you will see success. 3. 3 A Balanced Life Means More Time For The Important Things We all have full schedules, learning how to determine what is truly important can free us up to enjoy time together with loved ones. A close friend of mine is studying 6-Sigma, which means by default I am studying 6-Sigma. One of the items I have taken away is the 5 whys. The basic principle is to ask why five times to find the real reason you are performing a certain task. When we ask our selves why we really do something we can start to move into a direction of balance. When something new comes across your desk ask why you must be the one to do it. If it can be delegated then delegate it. I know this sounds simple and you have heard this a thousand times but I bet like people I talk to every day you do things just because you; Want them done right the first time, or Done your way, or some other reason you must be the one to do the task.If you are a sole proprietor then skip to the next paragraph. If you run a business with employees then train one of them to be a surrogate you. You need some one you can rely on to handle the task so you can cast the vision and lead the team. If you are running a business and you are the only one who knows how it runs-you will never be able to relax or take a vacation. If you have to be on 24/7 then you are not getting the rest your body needs and it will catch you sometime. If you are like me and have no one to delegate to then you need a list of things to-do.I use no Day-Timer or calendar system I just lay out on a spiral notebook all of the things I need to accomplish that week. Each night I list the thing to-do the next day in order from most important down. If something new comes in I put it on the list, and it may or may not get done that day depending on priority. I check and write email for thirty-minutes in the morning and evening. This gives me the freedom to do all email on my terms. I understand that phone calls come in from customers but do you really have to answer every phone call that comes in, can you get an answering service?I want you to look at all aspects of balancing your time. If you look you can find ways to free yourself up. 3. 4 What do you really need to live a balanced life? A clean, safe, calm home to retreat to your escape from the rest of the world where you can let your hair down and be yourself. A healthy diet and exercise to stay fit, healthy, trim and full of energy. Self-Care, whether it be reading, meditation, prayer, soaking in a hot tub, a new hairstyle, new clothes, you need to take care of your personal needs. Its not selfish. Its necessary. Remember the old saying If Mommas not happy, then no ones happy?Theres a lot of truth in that. Loving relationships. As much as some people swear they are happy being alone, we need human companionship to feel alive and part of the world. Quality time with family and friends. Everyone thrives when you take the time to enjoy the important people in your life. Even if youre a workaholic like me, make sure to set aside time everyday for important relationships. You think that if you do all the work now, you can make it up to them later when youve made it. Most of the time by the time youve made it, the important people in your life have left. It happens all the time.A way to support all of the above. Yep, thats where the money comes in. But its more than that. It has to be some-thing you like doing, or every workday will seem like a prison sentence. Dreams and goals. Without something to strive for, something to live for, we end up in a tedious existence. We need something that keeps the fire going no matter how old you are. How many people have you known who reached retirement only to spend the rest of their days in front of the television? Faith. It takes many forms throughout your life. Faith in your God, faith in yourself, faith in your kids.Youll find many times in your life when you just need to have faith that things will come out ok. Faith is what get us through the tough times. It has been proven in numerous studies that those who practice their religion live longer, healthier, and happier lives. 3. 5 Living a Well Balanced Life Can Bring Peace and Joy Into Your Life People everywhere are going to great lengths to find happiness in their lives. I too have pondered about the topic many times throughout my life. I have come to realize that happiness doesnt come from one single thing; it comes from living a balanced life.We all have busy lives and sometimes it feels like you are trying to juggle ten different things at one time, but we must focus are time and attention to the things that really matter the most. Here are four simple things that Ive tried focus the majority of my time on throughout my life. Family Our families should be our number one priority in life. We need to make time for our families. We cannot allow things such as work or personal interests come between us and our families. So many people just take the family for granted thinking that theyll always be around.Youll never hear someone on their death bed say that they wish they would have spent more time working; usually the number one regret that people have is not spending enough time with their families. Spiritual Having spiritual time in our lives is very important. We should seek after things that bring peace and joy to our soul. There are so many way that people can accomplish this; you can participate in a religious group, look for ways to serve other people, or just relaxing without interruption can be very edifying. Whatever you chose to do just make sure that you do it regularly. WorkI know a lot of people that work all day and all night, and they have a lot of money because of that. But, along the path of creating their wealth their families and spiritual well beings suffered. Finding a balance in our work life can be one of the most difficult things for a lot of people. Money is a great thing but its not worth losing precious family moments because of it. Personal It is very healthy to have personal interests; we should have time set aside to do some of the things that you like to do. A lot of times we worry about pleasing everyone around us that we forget to please ourselves.When taking time for our personal interests we must be careful so that our personal interests dont take up all of our time. In conclusion I truly believe that when we live a balanced life then we will find happiness. It seems as though when I strive for balance in my life everything just works out the way I want it or better than expected. IV. CONCLUSION 5 Barriers to Living a Successful, Healthy and Balanced Life Style Denial Syndrome When we experience any negative emotion such as frustration, fear or anger, we tend to blame people, things or events for those feelings which have come from the thought that we had, about something.Those thoughts that are triggering the negative emotional responses that we are having,   have nothing to do with anything or anyone else. Being aware and observing the thought that is behind the feeling you are having will start you on the right track. Then ask yourself†¦.. How is this serving me? Is it moving me forward or holding me back? Believing you have to work hard – Some people get into the trap of believing that in order to become successful you have to pay your dues, put in your time, work your fingers to the bone and if there is no pain there is no gain.This is one of the most limiting beliefs that we have ever been taught. The more you continue to believe this, the harder youre going to have to continue working. If you begin to change that belief and understand that struggle is optional and that things coming to you with little or no effort IS a possibility, things in your life will start to shift. Doubting ourselves and what you do – We wonder why we seem to be doing everything right and yet things still arent going the way we want them to go. We still have more things in our life that arent working than what are working.If there is the most subtle bit of doubt that you are having, then you are sabotaging getting what you wan t. Think of it as a river. You are flowing down the river towards what you want and then you think to yourself, Ill never have that or This isnt going to work, or any other negative thought you may have, and it would be like grabbing onto the river bank and we know what would happen then. We would stop! Failure to realize that we create our own reality – Our thoughts that come from our subconscious mind create our reality. What you believe in your subconscious mind is always true for you.We have been programmed to believe and act a certain way based on our life experiences. The subconscious mind only has the information that it has been given and if our thought of something is contradictory to what the subconscious mind knows then it will try to protect us from that thought. That is why a lot of people struggle with trying to always think positive. Change your thoughts and your feelings will change, thus your actions will change and you will start to get the results that you want. There is a limit to what we can have and do – There are no limitations except for the ones that we place on ourselves based on our thoughts.When we open our minds to believe that there are unlimited possibilities to be, do or have anything we want then and only then will we be, do and have everything that we want. Coming from a place of lack brings more lack. Release all thoughts of lack from the subconscious mind and think only prosperity and abundance. Visualize what it is like and feel the emotions of having unlimited prosperity and abundance in your life. Lack is something that we create based on our thoughts due to our life experiences. So, a balanced life means more time for the important things, and never give up for what you want to achieve.