What is your work life balance like?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Is it sustainable? Do you feel imbalanced? Do you feel like you’ve got this all figured out? Most of us don’t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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In this article, we\u2019ll explore how to achieve work-life balance in response to the question, \u201cWhat would your middle way look like?\u201d We\u2019ll learn how we can find inner and outer balance to generate success on our own terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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We want to have success defined on our terms.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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We want to do what we love, serve in the world, and make a difference. We want to move forward in our life and feel enthusiastic about it. Yet often we feel like we’re juggling a million things.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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One of the things I hear so often from women is, \u201cI want to find balance in my life so I can have time with my family while doing work that I love.\u201d They\u2019d like to open up to new possibilities for creativity, and have an overall balance in taking care of themselves while also taking care of their family.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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To be completely honest, I still struggle with this kind of balance.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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I think finding balance can be especially challenging for those of us who are entrepreneurs. Many women I work with are entrepreneurs looking to find support, not only for building their businesses and creating success on their own terms, but also for finding balance in doing so.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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We long to find success on our own terms, while honoring ourselves and finding our voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Entrepreneurship is one of the most powerful ways to catalyze our own inner growth and development.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Creating and running our own businesses puts us face to face with the questions of\u00a0 who we are, what we’re about, and what’s possible for us.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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This idea of finding balance is often one of the catalyzers that makes us want to go into entrepreneurship, yet we can quickly find ourselves more out of balance than ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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I realized that to be an entrepreneur, I have to put a lot of extra time in if I want this business to be successful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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I began my business as a single mother. In times when it\u2019s not sustaining me, I\u2019ve had to have side jobs along the way. In fact, for many starting their own business ventures,\u00a0 the business ends up being a side hustle for a while because the other things are paying the bills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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With so much on our plates, we find ourselves saying, \u201cHow do I find balance? I want to be there for my family. I want to be there for my work and my business. I want to be creative and grow and serve people, but I still need to pay the bills and make money.” It is a real challenge, and to this day I wrestle with it because of the amount of time it takes to build a thriving and sustainable business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Please know you’re not alone if you’re an entrepreneur and experiencing this struggle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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I continue to see and learn that we\u2019ll move forward and we\u2019ll grow and we\u2019ll expand in our lives when we also take care of ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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We can be so much more productive when we\u2019re making sure the work that we\u2019re doing is balanced by plenty of rest, good nutrition, sleep, fun, play, and creativity.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n So how do we do that?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Balance is dynamic. It’s not about being in perfect stillness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n I often equate balance to be analogous to a tightrope walker. There are two ends of the tightrope, and these hold the tightrope taught. We can think of those ends as extremes. On the one hand, you’re doing too much. On the other hand, you’re not doing enough.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n What is the <\/strong>balance between the extremes<\/strong><\/a>?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes we might need to stay closer to one end, which is a lot of work. Maybe we have a project we want to put out, or something we’re really working hard to achieve. Maybe we’re remodeling a house and we have to push to get things done and make things happen on time so we can get moved in.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n And then on the other side, it’s not enough. We\u2019re procrastinating, lacking motivation, and not getting anything done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes we need to shift where we are and say, \u201cNow’s not the time. I need to step back. I need to do something else.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Balance is not about being in the same perfect center completely balanced at all times. A tightrope walker is in dynamic movement, and going back and forth between the two ends of the rope while constantly finding balance. They\u2019re never static, and forever dancing between extremes.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n A lot of women think the idea of balance is about finding that perfect, \u201cAh, everything is in order, everything is perfect, and everything is just exactly in the right balance that it needs to be in.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n In reality, we want to start looking at our lives in the Sacred Feminine way, which is holistically.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n We want to look at the entirety of our experience and say, \u201cOkay, maybe this moment doesn’t feel in balance, but has my life overall been in balance? Has my month been in balance? Has my year been in balance?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n We can step back and look at life from a broader perspective. Then we can appreciate when we need to be in that greater \u201cdoing\u201d space and lesser \u201cbeing\u201d space, and find our balance between the two in various ways.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n I encourage you to look at your daily balance, your weekly balance, your monthly balance, and your yearly balance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n What does a day look like?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Are you giving yourself a good stopping point where you go to sleep on time and you get some good quality rest? Are you nourishing yourself on a daily basis in ways that truly help energize you and give you the energy to do the work that you have to do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n And then on a weekly basis, do you have days off? Do you have time with your family? Do you dedicate a certain time to certain things?<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n On a monthly basis, maybe you’re taking special activities for yourself. Maybe there’s a monthly class that you want to do, or some kind of special learning that you want to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n On a yearly basis, what do you notice about the rhythm of your year? Are certain times busier than others? Do you notice yourself wanting to hibernate at certain times of the year and be out doing lots of activities during other times of the year?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n That’s really okay. You can still have holistic balance.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n We often think it’s supposed to be steady and the same all the time. I invite you to look at the ways in which you’re viewing balance, and what your middle way of balance might look like from that broader perspective.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\nHow Do We Achieve Balance?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n