Life Balance Review

Jann Meehan, success coach and business coach with The Icehouse, is providing a free Life/Balance Review worksheet which accompanies her latest blog. Jann is also a life coach, accountant and mentor whose areas of expertise include people management, personal effectiveness, financial analysis and reporting and strategic planning. This article previously appeared on Jann’s website.

“You’re always one decision away from a totally different life.” L’eclectique Magazine

Hello Motivated people, how are you? Well, life has changed yet again, especially for those with children, who went back to school this week, for the first time since late March. There’s a lot to get used to again. After lockdown, you would think everyone would be thrilled to get back to normality, but I think there is a bit of nostalgia going on for the slower, calmer, quieter ways of the complete lockdown.

I live in a really quiet seaside area, that doesn’t have noticeable neighbours, but during lockdown it was even quieter. The air felt cleaner, we noticed there were more birds around and they were more vocal, or maybe we just noticed them more because of the stillness.

People I’ve spoken to, have mentioned that they loved not having to be in cars, in heavy traffic rushing from one destination to another. Again, those with kids are always on the go, driving from one end of town to another with kids doing martial arts, sports, music and/or tutoring. The calmness of not having to do that, not only reduced stress, but also gave us all more time to spend quality time with our families.

My son and his kids have always played lots of board games, it’s a favourite family activity. During lockdown though, they went one step further and started a family jigsaw, a 1000 piece mega jigsaw that has a lot of blue sky and blue sea… they haven’t got very far with it. Every time we visit, we only manage to add one or two pieces, so I don’t actually recommend doing something like that.

I think it would be nice if we could retain some of the positives of that lockdown time. There certainly were a lot of them, and learning to live life a bit slower, with more notice paid to the important stuff is an invaluable thing to do.

The thing is, we can make the changes that we want to see in our lives. So many of us think that we are stuck. I remember hearing about someone who was a University lecturer, who had a great job, was very well paid, lived in a lovely house, with a great family and had everything he could ever want or need. However, he hated his job. When asked why didn’t he do something about that, he said that he couldn’t, he was trapped and would have to stay in that job until he retired. How sad is that? The only thing that traps us is our mind and our reactions to our circumstances. If we don’t like the situation we are in, we can always find ways to change that.

This is about taking control of the things that you can control, being clear about what it is you really want, and making small changes to daily habits to start being able to live the life you want.  It is all there for us, we just have to start, one small step is all it takes. Then build on that one small step, and pretty soon you have walked a mile.

When coaching clients who aren’t happy, but have no idea what they want or what changes they can make, I usually start with the Life/Balance Review worksheet. It helps clarify what areas of your life need some work. It is quite powerful and is a great way to begin to see what could be better, and how you can make it better. Click here for the worksheet.

If you are in a relationship, it’s helpful for both of you to do the worksheet separately, then compare afterwards. The tip is to do the worksheet quickly, go with your gut feeling when answering the questions, no pondering, just answer openly and honestly. If you find several areas that need attention, just choose one to begin with, and set yourself some small goals towards transforming that area of your life.

I hope you find this helpful and I hope you can see what steps you can start taking to get your life working the way that you want it.  Get in touch with me (click here) if you want to discuss any of this further.

For more motivational and inspiring blogs from Jann, visit her website.

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