If there were one specific topic I feel like everyone on the planet is searching for an answer to, it’s: How do I find balance in my life?

There’s so much to try and navigate in life. There’s your work, home, family, spouse, kids, own personal health and wellness, downtime, freelance things, extracurricular/hobbies you have. How on earth do we find time to do all of those things and do them really well?

This week on The Gutsy Podcast, I’m going to talk you through five ways you can start to create more balance in your life.

(Huge spoiler alert. I’m going to get right to the point and let you know there really isn’t a beautiful equation for finding the perfect balance in your life. Because balance is not about finding equality between all the different things you’re doing—it’s about finding focus in the things you’re spending your time on.)

Number One

So the first thing I want you to do is start creating realistic expectations. If you’re always expecting yourself to perform the best in every single thing you do every day of the week, you are setting yourself up for failure.

See, what I’ve learned about balance is it’s not about creating an equal percentage across all of your life demands—it’s about knowing what part of your life needs you the most in that moment. It’s about being able to give yourself the time to focus on a specific task to accomplish a specific goal.

Number Two

You would be insanely amazed at how much planning can adjust the way you do everything.

If you’re constantly running around feeling like a chicken with your head cut off, this is a sign it’s time to pump the brakes and start implementing more planning into your life. Sometimes planning is just sitting down and getting your thoughts out of your head, or maybe it’s creating a to-do list/agenda to follow throughout your day. Perhpas you’re planning out your meals or outfits for the week.

Whatever the case may be, having a plan can make a BIG difference in your day to day anxiety and stress-levels. Plus they help you prioritize your time more effectively.

Remember, balance is all about taking baby steps and implementing little habits that will ultimately help you feel more accomplished.

Number Three

The third thing I want you to consider is delegating or asking for help.

So balance seems to be really skewed when we feel like we have to do everything alone. So say this with me now: Asking for help is not a sign of weakness.

It’s actually a sign of courage and intelligence.

Again, you’re not in this life alone. You would be amazed at the number of people who want to be able to help you. If you can give them a clear direction on the specific tasks they can help you with, not only are they gonna help you—but they’re going to do it really great. Take the stress off of your plate and you can get back to doing the things you actually need to get done in that moment.

Number Four

And this leads me into the fourth one, which is communicate your needs.

When I’m working all day and come home, I feel stressed out when we don’t have a plan. And then we would sit around for an hour or two, what do you want to eat? I don’t know, what do you want to eat?

And then before we know it, it’s eight o’clock and we’re just heating up leftovers.

So I communicated to my husband: “Hey, I could really use your help making dinner.” And he’s picked up that role and it’s actually pretty awesome.

If you don’t communicate with people, they’re not going to know your needs and you’re going to internalize that stress and you’re going to hold grudges and then you’re going to constantly feel like you’re running around. I also think it’s really important to communicate with those people in your inner circle about the demands of your life in that moment.

Number Five

I need you to start getting comfortable with building in you-time. Remember how I said there’s a time to be selfless? It’s a-okay and 100% acceptable and actually quite necessary to be selfish and take care of yourself.

Now I feel like the word selfish gets a bad rap because it’s associated with something negative. So what if we re-phrase the word selfish with filling up my tank? If I said, “Hey, you know, I’m just going to take 30 minutes and go fill up my tank,” how does that change your perception of self-care?

When someone is feeling kind of empty—feeling a little spent and probably a little overwhelmed, so they need a little bit of time to go fill back up—how admirable is it when they just take time and invest in themself unapologetically to do any of the things life is asking them to do?

When you don’t, you consistently run yourself into the ground. You get sick, you get tired, you get cranky as all hell, and you live your life feeling like you’re doing everyone else’s tasks and demands and never fulfilling your own.

Sometimes filling your tank is being alone and sometimes filling your tank as being with really intentional people. It’s all about recognizing what you need and then putting action behind it because when you’re running yourself into the ground, not only are you suffering the most—but everything you’re responsible for starts to suffer as well.

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