BALANCING LIFE'S PRIORITIES 

(In this article, discover the importance of balancing life's priorities and find strategies to help you find balance in work, relationships, personal growth and well-being.)

In my childhood, when I started learning to ride bicycle, I realized the importance of balancing. And funny thing is that when I started to ride the bicycle independently, I found it very easy and smooth process and therefore quite exciting also.  In fact I could do so many things simultaneously along, like looking in all possible directions, humming some favorite songs, whistling, trying different speed levels, riding the bicycle single handedly or handsfree, riding the bicycle in slow and some times almost in a standstill position.  It was really adventurous.

But as  we grow up, we have so many realizations regarding living. This we learn at different ages. And one of most important is realization of  how challenging it is to balance the life.  

And this balancing act is related to balancing various priorities of life. This included discharging of various responsibilities in work, family, health, personal growth, health, relations, social connect, career and what not. 

And further, an effective balancing of the priorities in life rewards us the coveted sense of fulfillment and well-being. 

 BALANCING LIFE'S PRIORITIES 

image courtesy : pixabay.com

While reaching my superannuation age, I was working in a highly stressed work environment surrounded by colleagues who struggled to manage their workload.  Maintaining their mental and physical health seemed to be a great challenge for them.  In the midst of all this chaos, I noticed two individuals who stood out from the crowd : my immediate boss and my junior.

Though I prefer to maintain professional relations, I always seized the opportunities to learn some thing helpful for me, without crossing the line. For this I used to take liberty of closely observing my boss.

My boss - he was a shining example of the one who has mastered the art of balancing the priorities in life. He exuded the confidence and calmness, tackling every situation with ease and effortlessly juggling the demands of work and personal life. What was his secret? He had aligned his action with his personal values and was reaping the rewards of a successful and fulfilling live.

Having set priorities in life, his plus points I observed were -

    -very strong ability to focus

    -improving time management

    -reduced anxiety and stress level. In fact I always found him fresh.

    -sense of fulfillment. He always appeared a happy man.

    -he had very good relations with all. He must be a happy family man.

    -he had a healthy record. No major illness.

    -sound financial status. In fact, he never mentioned about loans.

     -he could get inspired by small small things very easily. And so also motivated.

    -he had high level of time management skill.

    -at 50 plus age also he exhibited admirable work efficiency.

    -he was well known as the best decision maker in our organization.

    -every one admired and also envied his overall life status.

BALANCING LIFE'S PRIORITIES

My junior : on the other hand, my junior was in total mess. He is constantly in a stage of panic, rushing from one task to the next, making careless mistakes that were costing the organization the precious time and revenue. Though I never discussed personal matters with him, once he confided in me that he felt overwhelmed and stressed out. And that his health is suffering as a result. And he is always in heated arguments with his spouse.

My observations about him in general, were -

    -overwhelmed. Hence always struggling to manage his work.

    -high level of anxiety and stress on mind.

    -unfulfilled and always disconnected with his purposes in life.

    -he missed so many opportunities in work and life, leading to getting frustrated.

    -his decreasing work efficiency.

    -he was always under financial stress.

    -strained relations with colleagues. He once complained about his spouse.

    -precarious health conditions.

    -I  found him burnout leading to decreased motivation, creativity and wellbeing.

    -load of regrets in life.

And myself -as I observed these two individuals at two different levels, I learnt that the key to a happy, successful and fulfilling life is balancing priorities in life. By setting up goals based on our personal values and accepted social norms, we can achieve our set goals while at the same time ensuring our physical and emotional well-being.

I also learnt that our own power of discretion plays important role, if only we listen to it. This power of discretion guides us in relation to our personal life values and goals. We can understand the conflicts in life - good and bad -right and wrong- moral and immoral- legal and illegal- truth and untruth and so on. And thus, our power of discretion directs us to make the right choice. And most importantly, we have ability to accept the consequences of our choices made. This strengthens our confidence to set our priorities in life.

For setting up our priorities in life -

        -we must identify our life values

         -prepare a list of our goals

        -decide priorities of our goals, based on our values, determining order of   importance.

         -be realistic. If not, we will have to face disappointment.

          -reassessment of the priorities from is essential to realign with life situations.

        -practicing self-care to maintain essential good physical and mental health.

        -seeking help of the near and dear ones and professional counselors.

We must be aware of how to set the goals and achieve them. This setting up of the goals in life is essential otherwise our life will be precarious causing great suffering for us as well as our near and dear ones.

Efficient time management helps us reining in all the aspects in life. With the help of our power of discretion we can set the priorities avoiding waste of our precious time and energy.

BALANCING LIFE'S PRIORITIES

In short, the wisdom learnt is - balance is the key to success in life and those who master it will succeed in every aspect of their lives.

Practicing this wisdom in life has proven a great step for me to achieve fulfillment in life.

By sharing this knowledge with my dear readers, they will surely be able to overcome their struggle and achieve the same sense of fulfillment that I have achieved.

And failure to do so, we are likely to suffer from stress, isolation, frustration, depression and thus inevitably we will lead a miserable life.

Dear readers, your comments are requested to enable me to gauge the helpfulness of this article.

Next time .......