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Life isn’t a marathon, it’s a series of sprints.

A lot of articles written on this site are about how to bring the 7 different aspects of life into balance. While Professional or Financial may be top of mind at the current moment, that could change.

In my definition of a Rich Life, it includes an optimal amount of each part of the Life Balance wheel. The only problem is that when I focus on one piece of the pie, that inherently means I take my focus away from something else.

This time of year is an especially important one for me. This is the point in the year, just after we enter Q2, where I evaluate how far I’ve come with my goals. It isn’t too late to get started on some that I’ve been putting off because I’ve been focusing on the top priority ones.

But it’s just long enough to see if I’ve been making progress on the goals I have been working on. Here are a couple of Life Balance goals I have been looking at recently.

Work-Life Balance

People love to talk about how they have a great work-life balance. In my definition of work-life balance, that means that the Professional piece of the pie doesn’t dominate all of the other pieces combined.

Like I’ve said before, I like to work hard. It is something that takes no skill or intellect and therefore, we have no excuse if we don’t work hard. But there is also a saying that I think we should live by as well.

Work hard, play hard Click to tweet

Throughout the year, we need to plan breaks for ourselves. I’ve set up vacations every 3 months or so. But in-between those vacations, I am all out. I fill my weekdays from top to bottom.

Then on those vacations, I am fully unplugged. This allows me to recharge and be ready for the next push. It’s a cycle.

We all have certain times of year that are busier than others. Just like accountants during tax season, software developers right before a software release, or any other professional that has to plan for periodic reviews with their supervisors.

I have begun to plan for these cycles so that I can give it my all when I have to and recharge when I set aside the time. That’s what I have found to help me stay balanced.

Social vs Individual Balance

There are cycles in our personal lives too. We might have a couple of weeks in a row where we have plans most of the weekend and even most weeknights. This prioritization is because we value our relationships with Friends and Family.

When we spend time with others, that means we are spending less time with ourselves. There’s a balance that has to be struck to work on ourselves too, the Physical, Mental, and Spiritual parts of our lives.

I try to get my exercise in before or after work. I also try to do activities that are both social and active to work on both parts of my life.

The Breaking Point

But there comes a point in time where we just need a break. It might not be time to go on a vacation but we’ve hit that breaking point. Some things that help me are reading, meditating, and/or prayer.

The major thing is that these activities don’t need to have any ulterior motive other than to give our brains and our bodies some rest. Some people like to brag that they are, “Burning the candle from both ends.” I like to come back and ask when their candle is going to run out.

That’s the point I am trying to make. We are so excited about prioritizing one or two things in our life over others, then we will inherently lose those other parts. If I never exercise, I will gain weight and develop physical health problems. If I never take care of my mind, I will develop anxiety or other mental conditions.

Since everything in life compounds, when I gain weight, my self-esteem will go down. Because I am anxious more often, I begin to think that I am unattractive or unworthy of certain nice things. That continues to spiral since the only thing I am good at is eating, drinking, and working.

It continues to compound until I hit the breaking point. This is where the cycle ends and where I reevaluate my current life status. Am I hitting all of my goals around the entire Life Balance wheel or just one or two of them?

Because life is a series of sprints and not just one long marathon, there are built-in times that are set up for us to take a moment and check in with ourselves. Don’t over-estimate the power that these moments can have on the direction of the rest of your year or your life.