BALANCE: YOUR ROLES & BEST YOU'S PART 1

Living a balanced life involves a lot of role juggling. Wearing the different hats of being a business owner, professional, spouse, parent, significant other, student, child, sibling, friend etc. etc. PLUS the need to love yourself, be healthy, sleep, pursue dreams//hobbies, have a healthy spiritual life, and keep up a home takes a lot of work and prioritizing. It's hard to live a life where all of those roles are prioritizes perfectly 100% of the time AND all get the proper attention they need. I would argue that living a semi-balanced life with room for the storms and busy seasons takes lots and lots of practice and constant attention.

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It's important to step back into a phase of evaluation from time to time to see if your priorities are out of focus and if important things are slipping through the cracks. How is your mental//burnout state, what needs to be put on the back burner, what do you need to start doing?

But first, you have to ask yourself; what are my roles? What are my priorities? How much time am I spending on things that I do//don't love? What are things I wish I could start doing in my life? How do I begin putting these things into balance?

Below is a step-by-step exercise on evaluating these questions. SO, let's take a quick break, grab a cup of tea, coffee, juice...whatever you like best, and put it in a fancy cup. :) Grab your favorite journal//notebook that you keep with you often and great pen and work through these lists and questions:

1. What Are Your Roles? ---> Time to list out the different roles you play in life. This includes everything from your job to being a spouse. Anything you can think of off the top of your head. I usually categorize my roles by areas of responsibility in my life. A good way to figure out your roles is by going through your weekly//monthly activities and seeing what role is centered around each activitiy. As an example, here are a few of my current roles:

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2. Best You's ---> Another way to look at this list is, what are the things in life you should do to be the best version of yourself? This question often gets overlooked. We sometimes focus too much on the first question that we forget about caring for ourselves so we can be full of energy to play our life roles better. In other words, we don't want to be a "starving baker", someone who gives all of their bread away and has nothing left to nourish themselves. Begin by asking yourself what energizes you and what you need. Although all of my "best you's" are important, the idea of development is extremely important to me, this is where I take time to learn, challenge myself, grow, ideate and set goals for myself. Development motivates me and inspires me to be the best me. Here is an example of what your list might look like:

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3. Time to Prioritize ---> Ok! So you've listed out your roles and "best you's". Now it's time to prioritize!! I want you to make two lists. (A) First, I want you to analyze your current priorities in life. Let's keep your roles and "best you's" on a separate list, but be sure to prioritize each. Do this by looking at what gets the most time and thought in your life to what gets the least. (B) And next,  create a new list organizing how you want your roles and "best you's" to be prioritized moving forward. While developing this new list, ask yourself, what needs to changed? What should get the most of your time? What should get the least? Do you have roles and "best you's" that need to be cut out from your first list? Are there roles and "best you's" that need to be added to your life?

Now that you have worked on this list, it's time to take another break. Reflect on these questions, maybe take more time to develop these lists for yourself? Ask someone close to you like your spouse, best friend, or family member to help you think through these items.

Why Do this Anyway?
Life can easily become too chaotic, balancing your roles in life gives you the chance to give your time to what's important. "Things that matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least."

In part 2 and 3 of this topic, we'll talk about what these roles and best you's mean in your life, how to set goals and actions items to your new list, and tips on walking toward balancing these areas in your life.

If you have any tips, tools or ideas for discovering and balancing your roles, I'd love to hear! What are some of the top roles that mean the most to you in your life?? Comment below!