Finding Balance, While Maintaing Momentum!

Cleaning the house, laundry, running errands, grocery shopping, making dinner, mowing the lawn, maintaining the garden & landscaping, raising the kids, time with friends & family, and oh yeah, running a business! Sound familiar? How do you find balance and still maintain your business momentum?

As I blog about this, I must confess that I struggle with this myself and consider this to be a continuous area of improvement and focus. I have found that for me, finding balance is about de-cluttering my life and is really a personal evolution that has not come easy or quick.

So what do I mean by de-cluttering your life? Consider some of the things I have done and think about what you can incorporate into your life:

• The first thing I did was to take stock of my relationships, were there people in my life that were constantly negative and bringing me down? Where there people who seemed to always need some "drama" happening in their life and if it there wasn't, they would create or seek it? I will tell you that there are people that I consider to be friends but no longer have close relationships with anymore. I also left a husband now ex-husband in the aftermath of my former life, but have moved myself into a better place with an intimate group of close friends and family that make me feel better as a person just because I have them in my life. I also have a new husband with goals and values that are in sync with my own.
• The second thing I did and probably the easiest for me was to de-clutter my space. Letting go of "things" that I had held on to for no specific reason other than I may need it someday! I sorted out my closet (which I still do seasonally), photos, collectibles (dust collectors), etc. I organized and sorted and maintain a philosophy of something comes in, something goes out when it comes to "stuff" in my life. I set away time each week to clean and organize, everything has a place and once you define these places and put things in them when not in use, your well on your way to maintaining daily organization.
• The third thing is to de-clutter your time. There are a lot of things in life that I consider to be clutter, the TV is a huge source of mental and time clutter. Do you need to watch the news morning, noon and night? Probably not, could you just watch it in the evening while making dinner or in the morning with getting through your morning beauty routine. Do you have to sit and watch Grey's Anatomy every Thursday night or could you download it off iTunes and watch it while you workout? Do you need all those TV shows are could you narrow it down to a select few? Think about how much time you watch TV and what you watch? Think about how stressed and busy you feel, would eliminating a few hours of TV time in favor of more productive things eliminate some of that stress? Email and Internet is another thing that clutters our time, dedicate some specific time each day to respond to emails rather than sitter there all day jumping on every email that comes in. Avoid the Facebook/Twitter/MySpace trap, these are legitimate ways to promote your business and network however, you should dedicate an allotment of time to do this and not get caught sitting in front of it all day waiting for people to update their status. Are there obligations in your life that you'd rather not do or that don't keep you moving forward personally and professionally? Think of other things that clutter your time and how you can eliminate or reduce the amount of time spent on these things.
• Think about what is important and make the time! Family, sleep, exercise, etc. You make your list and you make the time, will eliminating some TV make more time for these things?
• Learn to say No! Will joining the PTA eliminate time for the really important things and people in your life? You have to learn you can't do it all and will need to say no.
• Learn to delegate! Can your kids help with household chores, does it make sense to have the neighbor kid mow your lawn? What is the value of your time? During the time spent mowing the lawn could you have made money working for a client, etc? Would you have made more than it would cost to pay someone to mow the lawn or clean the house? At some point, these are things you need to think about.
• Make lists! Making a list helps you to organize your time so you don't have to run back to the grocery store for that one thing you forgot.
• Make a long-term plan and think about the benefits! Think about where you want to be in 6 months, 1 year, 3 years, 5 years and so on. Write it down and look at it often, this will keep you on track and help you to keep moving forward. Think about the long term benefits to exercising vs. watching TV... will 30 minutes of yoga recharge you better than 30 minutes of TV? Weigh all your options and choose the one that aligns with your goals.

This list is not all-inclusive, but should get you thinking and will be a good start to finding some balance and maintaining your momentum.

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