The Four Stages of Finding Life Balance

Life balance is something that we all aspire to. Imagine a life in which your opportunities for enjoyment and fun are equally balanced with opportunities for hard work, and in which your opportunities for having engaging relationships are equally balanced with quiet time.

Life balance looks different to everyone. Yet, there's a four-stage process that can help anyone discover their own version of life balance. The four stages are awareness, desire, influences, and action.

Awareness

The first stage of finding life balance is awareness of your current situation. By taking a good look at your life right now, you can begin to recognise which parts are satisfying and which parts are not. You can get clearer on what you enjoy doing and what you don’t. And you can begin to make decisions about what you’d like more of and what you’d like less of.

The process of creating awareness involves doing an assessment of your current life. Here are some questions to ask yourself...

How do you spend your time?
How satisfied are you?
What activities are causing you stress or unhappiness?
What activities are creating happiness and fulfilment?

When you increase your awareness, you can then begin to make changes towards a happier life.

Desire

Once you'reconsciously aware of the happiness and unhappiness in your life at the moment, you can begin to envision what you’d like more of in your life. This stage is all about tapping into what you really want to be doing in your life, and how it might differ from what you are currently doing. Sometimes a small change in how you spend your time can make a big difference in your enjoyment of life.

This stage asks the questions...

How do I want to spend my time?
What types of activities would bring me joy and fulfillment?

Desire is a strong catalyst for making change. Staying connected to that desire can be challenging. That’s why it’s important to identify your influences.

Influences

An “influence” is one thing that affects something else for better or for worse. In the case of life balance, there are two basic kinds of influences: internal influences and external influences. Internal influences include thoughts, feelings, skills, strengths, weaknesses, habits, motivation, and anything else that exists “inside” a person.

External influences are factors that exist outside of a person, such as the influences of other people (family, a boss, children, friends, etc.), money, laws, the neighbourhood, weather, and so on. When it comes to influences, a drunk driver (an external influence) can be as big an influence as negative self talk (an internal influence).

Another way of viewing influences is to see them as either obstacles or resources. An obstacle is something that gets in your way, but may be overcome with ease or great effort. A resource is something that helps you or supports you. It may help you overcome obstacles or help you move forward in other ways.

The questions to consider during this stage are...

What obstacles stand in my way of finding life balance?
What resources are available or attainable that will help me find life balance?

Identifying influences – eliminating your obstacles and capitalizing on your resources – will help you with the final stage, taking action.

Action

Without action, nothing will happen. The famous axiom, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions” says it all. Change is impossible without action.

This final stage of finding life balance asks...

What do I need to do to find life balance?
What is one thing I can focus on doing that will take me one step closer to life balance?

Action is where the magic happens for finding greater life balance.

If you'd like personal assistance with building a greater sense of balance in your life, why not find out more about our Work-Life Coaching. Simply schedule a free no-obligation 15-minute phone chat with our Head Coach, Adele Sinclair. Simply email to set up a time.

Wellness at Work Australia