How to balance your life and be Happy
If you want to be the best dad, husband, or business owner, you being pulled in too many directions. Help with the kids, get some date night with your significant other, and increase the profit margin for your business. You might be asking, which direction is the best one? Should I focus only on the family, work, or try to make it work well together? From my personal experience, you can have it all, but you need to know what you want, increaser your daily energy level and think before you act.
Don’t get me wrong, I still fight with certain things. After testing various approaches, I can say that many things have been improved year over year and I believe that you can have a balanced life and be happy. It just takes time and filings to adjust.
Know what you want
If you know what you want, it is much easier for you to choose the path which will lead to the destination you want to reach. Here is the example what I want. My goal is to be a great husband, father, and business owner. I had to ask myself, how can I achieve all this? I wrote down the main goals for each category.
Husband= spend quality time, travel, listen
Father= teach my kids what I know, let them choose, be present
Business Owner= Monthly/Yearly goals, Vision, Impact
For me, breaking down the small goals allows me to get a clearer picture of what I really want to accomplish. I try to challenge myself and become better in each category. It’s not an easy task, but I can tell you that it’s enriching to improve because the overall impact you have on your life is priceless.
Need enough energy
This is very important because being able to achieve all you want, you will need a lot of energy. I know first hand, how challenging it can be to watch two young children who always need attention and try to finish different projects for my business.
There are many ways how you can increase energy, but for me, the best ways to increase the level of energy are…
No alcohol (not drinking beers, wine)
No Process Sugar /carbs ( no chocolates, ice-cream, bread, rice, potatoes)
Exercise (at least some type of activity each day)
Enough sleep (6-8 hours each day)
After limiting alcohol consumption as well as not eating process sugar and many carbs, I realized that my mood swings are nonexistent. I become more patient with my kids without snapping at them when I was tired. The short term pleasure by eating sweets or drinking alcohol is not worth the damage it can cause to a long term personal vision I do have for my family and business ventures.
When you get enough exercise each day as well as enough sleep, you will see that the level of your energy is much higher. Notably, sleep is super important. I know that you might have a hard time to get enough sleep, but if you can rearrange the schedule, you will see the benefits. It’s worth it.
I know that it might be challenging to follow this every single day. The more often you will eat better, drink clean water while exercising and having a great night sleep, you will feel much better about making important decisions by using facts and not emotions.
Think before you act
This might be one of the hardest things to do. I have struggled with this a lot because sometime I could not control my emotions. When you realize that there are no right or wrong choice, you will think about your decisions differently. When you choose the path you want, just stick to it and adjust as needed.
You probably experience some irritating moments when you wanted to scream out lout by anger. You can imagine the moment when someone hit your car while you were going to an important meeting.
To be in the right mind, you should take a deep breath and count up to 30. I guaranteed you that you will be in the right minds set. It happened to me once, when I got hit by an older’s lady car when I was taking my kids to preschool. I took the time to relax and went to ask the driver if she was ok. If I went right away after we got hit, I might be a bit angrier and not so pleasant.
If you do not act emotionally, you will be able to make decisions which are supported by facts and not by emotions. Think before you act. There is an amazing book called ‘Third Circle Theory” which will help you with your mindset. Highly recommend the book.
When you know where you are going and what your goals are, with enough energy and fast thinking, you will be able to live a balanced, happy life. Just remember that this takes time to get better at it. I am not perfect by any means, but I know that I am a better version myself than I used to be a year ago.
Cau, Honza