All of us get off track from time to time. We may have been doing well, and life was going according to plan. Work was good, and the kids were doing well. You were probably even exercising, eating right, and managing your stress, but then things somehow got a bit wonky. Maybe your work schedule changed, throwing off your sleep, or maybe you took ill. Whatever the case, life never goes exactly to plan.
I had previously written an article about finding life balance, but I thought it was worth revisiting the topic. In the earlier article, I had discussed the challenge of fitting everything into my schedule. At the time, I had been planning a vacation and trying to get all of my work done, and preparing as much as possible for the time I was to be gone. In addition, I needed to organize and clean my house, and arrange care for my pets, etc.
The way things worked out, one of my daughters also needed to be dropped off for her college orientation the day we were to leave. This meant six hours in the car in addition to the six hours I planned to drive that night and the four hours I planned to drive the next day. I thought this was supposed to be relaxing. I had reserved a condominium for seven days and thought that by the time I began to enjoy my time off, it would be over, and I would need to come back.
Well, it seems that the need to find balance in my own life is becoming a recurring theme, as I’m sure it is for many people. I seem to be in the same situation this year where I’m working multiple jobs, I’m busy writing, and am busy caring for my family and other obligations. All of these things are good, life is good, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t stress. What makes this all even more complicated, at least to me, is that I feel I’m not the best example of health and wellness that I write about so often — time for a reset.
In the article I mentioned earlier, I had discussed what it meant to be a good example of healthy living with one of my fitness clients, who happened to be a physician. What I determined by the end of the conversation was that everything comes down to finding balance. Whether the topic is food, rest, fun, stress, or exercise, the key is balance.
Many years ago, I took a position in sales that was very different from the fitness management jobs I had worked all of my career. Instead of exercising for two hours every day, I was stuck in a cubical all day in a high-stress, commission-driven position. To make matters worse, I had an hour commute each way and unwisely chose this point in my life to take a full load of graduate classes. Needless to say, I was not at my healthiest. My stress was through the roof, and I was easily 30 pounds overweight. That’s right, I had been a competitive powerlifter with a health degree and had been a professional trainer for many years, and was an overweight, stressed out 30-something. Ultimately, I took a 40% pay cut to get back into the fitness field. The problem was that I no longer looked the part of a professional fitness trainer. How could I possibly expect others to follow my advice if I couldn’t take it? I know I had to do something. The key was to find balance.
I needed to get back on track in every way. I needed to manage my stress and inject some fun into my all work, no play lifestyle. I needed to eat healthy foods that gave me energy instead of taking fast-food shortcuts. I also needed to make time to do the exercise that I had loved all of my life. The one thing I also knew I needed to do was to make health and wellness a lifestyle, once again. This meant that everything needed to be sustainable. It also meant that I needed a break. A sort of “time out.”
All of us go through periods such as this. Where life seems to be just a bit more out of control than normal. Where there aren’t enough hours in the day or, as one of my clients used to say, “It’s like trying to stuff 10 lbs of manure into a 5 lb bag”. The solution is to re-set, re-balance, and take a time-out — none of the obstacles that you encounter when over-busy are insurmountable when taken individually. We just need a minute to get our bearings and find our balance once again. So, step back, rest, and recover. Find the happy medium and most certainly take time to care for yourself. You and those you care for will be much better for it.
