This week's Three Small Things is going to continue in the theme of life balance that I explored earlier this week. Specifically, is there an area of your life that you know is suffering for want of time, energy, or attention? How can you feed that aspect of your life to create more balance?

Photo by Jamie Campbell

It's quite possible that something in your life immediately popped into your mind already. If you are unsure where to start, some areas that many people tend to accidentally make a low priority are:

• Care of your physical body (such as sleep, exercise, or healthful eating)
• Working on a long-term highly strategic (but non-urgent) project at work or home
• Care of your mental, creative, or spiritual well-being (such as making time for prayer/meditation, doing something fun by yourself, spending time on a hobby, learning or something new)
• Doing a favor or planning a thoughtful loving gesture for someone you care about
• Doing things that are fun instead of chore-oriented with a spouse, partner, or child

For today's exercise, choose only one thing to focus on. Whatever you choose, choose something that truly matters to you that you would love to spend some time nurturing... not something that gave you a jolt of guilt when you thought of it because you "should" be doing more. Now, thinking about your area of focus, here are a few questions to ponder:

• What is one small thing that you could spend just ten minutes on TODAY in your area of focus?


• What is one small thing that you could add to your weekly schedule and do consistently that would impact your area of focus? (I challenge you: add it to your calendar or task list right now.)


• In what ways (large of small) might this investment be worthwhile and rewarding?

Have a fantastic weekend everyone!

Danielle LaPorte wrote a powerful post about why she doesn't want life balance. She makes excellent points and I agree with many of them, yet my conclusion is different. I still love the term life balance and prioritize balance as a value in my own life. I still want to help my time management coaching clients come to greater balance as well if that is their desire.

The post got me thinking, though, about some of the pitfalls I've seen in how people approach the concept, and I decided I want to share my thoughts on what life balance means to me. Here's what I think it is... and isn't.

A balanced life is a life where you live your own values and priorities... not someone else's.

A balanced life is a life where you are aware of how you use your time and energy and how you want to be using them... so that you can make changes.

A balanced life is a life of fully conscious choices... not easy, safe choices.

A balanced life gives time and energy to the full diversity of what matters to you... but doesn't necessarily allow you to give equal attention to every thing each day, week or month.

A balanced life is supported by taking good basic care of yourself... but doesn't mean you won't challenge or push yourself to the edges of your endurance at times.

A balanced life is full of many emotional states... it's not always peaceful and serene, nor always free of stress, struggle or overwhelm.

A balanced life is still messy and imperfect at times... just like everything else in this world.

A balanced life looks different for everyone because we all have such different needs and desires... there's no simple one-size-fits-all solution.

A balanced life is dynamic and ever-evolving, growing and changing as you grow and change, constantly being re-created... not a static thing that you achieve just once and then have only to maintain.

Balance in life is about finding flow and joy in the many things you do, and feeling as if the pieces form an amazing and highly varied collage that you love, even though they don't fit neatly together like the ones in a puzzle.

It's not the balance of two objects of equal weight sitting on a scale. It's the balance in movement that a trapeze artist or a tightrope walker finds, a balance of sweeping motion and constant shifting adjustments and adventure. It's not about never falling down. It's about having the roots and foundation laid down so firmly that you can confidently trust in your ability to regain your footing.

If you don't pay deliberate attention to balance, it's all too easy to lose sight of the full wide range of things that matter to you. You can become mono-focused and gradually yet dramatically skew your use of time and energy towards just a few aspects of your life.   If you weren't looking, by the time you realize something's not working, you're already close to or beyond a breaking point. You may even have lost something or someone important through neglect... and it might be too late to fix it.

I think I feel some more posts coming on this topic in the future, about how to assess your life balance and how to bring yourself back to balance if you've gotten badly out of whack.

How do you define life balance? Do you seek balance in your life or do you feel it's a concept that isn't helpful to you?

Sometimes when working with time management it's easy to get caught up in to-do's and future plans. Planning and anticipating is important to create the life you want, but it's important to balance this kind of thinking with a sense of full presence in the moment.

Photo by Hamed Saber 

For today's Three Small Things, I needed to remind myself to stop and smell the roses - so I'm going to focus on gratitude and the here-and-now:

• What is one small thing that you are grateful for about this very moment you are experiencing in this very place?


• What is one small thing that you experience every day that adds joy to your life?


• What is one small thing in your plans for the day that you will take the time to savor and do slowly without rushing?

So don't forget to take three deep breaths and enjoy the moment this weekend... as well as do all the wonderful work and planning we all do for the future. Have a wonderful weekend everyone!