As someone who tries to take on more than I should, I know what it’s like to juggle many responsibilities. Keeping up with jobs, blogging, relationships, and self-care often feels like a never-ending rat race.
Though balance is something I strive for in my life, it can be hard to feel balanced when I’m trying to do too much. And if I’m being totally honest, sometimes it’s because I’m simply not using my time in the best ways (don’t judge me).
Balance obviously means something different to everyone, yet most of us are seeking it in some way or another. When you’re burned out and stressed out, balance seems like the ultimate remedy.
If you’ve been craving balance in your life but just can’t seem to make it happen, here are five reasons your life might be feeling off-balance (and what you can do about it!).
5 Reasons Why Balance Is A Struggle
At times when I’ve said to myself, ‘I wish I had more balance in my life,’ I’ve noticed it means I’ve been slacking on a few key things. Check out this list and see if you can relate to any of them:
1. You haven’t defined what balance truly means to you.
If you’ve been wishing your life felt more balanced without defining what that looks like, it’s going to be difficult to achieve it. After all, balance feels different for all of us depending on our responsibilities, relationships, hobbies, and jobs.
To kick things off, why not start by journaling your thoughts and feelings around balance. Visualize what it would look like if you actually achieved it. This will give you a much better idea of what you should be striving for.
P.S. Within The Mind, Body, Soul Balance Guide, you can figure out exactly what balance means to you and how to focus your life around this.
2. You haven’t been practicing self-discipline.
Even though discipline sounds like the opposite of balance, it’s one of the best tools to help you feel on top of things. Without self-discipline, we often waste time, procrastinate, and fail to follow through with things. This only makes us feel overwhelmed, guilty, and totally unbalanced.
Think about ways you might be lacking in self-discipline. How can you make tweaks in your life that will help you follow through with things you usually let slide?
Try reducing distractions, getting clear on your priorities, and setting better personal boundaries.
3. You aren’t being consistent with your actions.
Consistency is an important aspect of balance, even though it may not seem like much fun. Think about if you only ate salads for one week as part of a healthy eating plan, and the next week your diet was 100% McDonald’s burgers. Lack of consistency in our actions is one of the reasons your life might feel all over the place.
Which areas of your life are you lacking consistency? Try to create consistency around the way you take care of yourself, especially with food, exercise, sleep, and relaxation. These areas have the biggest impact on your overall life balance.
4. You don’t plan ahead.
When you forget to plan out the details of your schedule, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by everything you have to do. Planning is a way to ensure that you can take care of business AND take care of yourself. Though balance may seem like a go-with-the-flow kind of thing, sometimes planning is the only way to make it happen.
Create a basic outline of how your week will look by including appointments, projects to work on, social/relationship time, and self-care. If you plan these things out in your schedule, it’s easier to stay on top of them during the week.
Read This Next: A Simple Way To Plan Your Day For Success
5. You aren’t taking proper care of yourself.
With everything you might be juggling (work, relationships, home life, etc.), the most important thing is to make time for is yourself. If you aren’t taking ample time to do what fills your soul away from your responsibilities, balance will always seem out of reach.
It’s easy to create excuses about not having time for self-care, but even five minutes is better than nothing. If you practice self-discipline, stay consistent, and plan ahead, you’ll find that you can work self-care into your schedule.
For more self-care tips and ideas, check out The Ultimate Self-Care Toolkit.
What does balance look like to you?
I hope these tips helped you identify areas of your life where you can make some positive changes. Start by defining balance in your own terms, then work on self-discipline, consistency, and organization. That way, you’ll have more time for yourself and what’s important.
I’d love to know what balance means to you and how you deal when life feels unbalanced. Leave a comment below!
9 Responses
Just found your blog, I love your writing style!
I feel my absolute best when I consistently lift weights three times a week, write in my gratitude journal every day, walk the dogs to the lake before breakfast, go dancing at least once a week, and of course get a lot of hugs.
It really is all about consistency and priorities, and making sure that I do these things to keep anxiety and depression at bay. I also keep two calendars — one monthly, and one weekly whiteboard one so I can easily plan and be prepared for my week. Being mentally prepared makes all the difference sometimes. :)
Hi Catherine! Another great post, I always look forward to them. I balance my life with astrology and planning. I’ve been studying the lunar cycle and astrology and plan my month, week, and days. This allows me to set intentions for doing things according to how my mind and soul will peak at best. Sometimes it’s social/love, financial/career, creativity/expression (creating, designing, organizing), or mental/relaxation breaks (reading, binge-watching Netflix, bubble baths). I sit down and journal my intentions and expectations for the month (at the end/beginning of a month), every Monday I plan for the week, and I review my daily horoscope. It’s a great balance for me as far as doing what I feel my soul should be doing but planning it at the same time to get the best intentions during that time. Changing it up keeps me interested and motivated to stick to my plans!
Hi Catherine. It ‘s a great post. I ‘ve just found your blog when i tried to learn English. (I am Vietnamese) I can understand what u wrote. I know almost words in this post but i dont know how to put them together. So i can learn English and a lot of good things by reading your blog. This though makes me feel interested
Thank a lot
Hi Catherine, I found your writing at a time when I needed someone to talk to without being judgemental. Someone I can share my thoughts with, your blog has such interesting topics, topics that are giving answers to all the rethorical questions I had. I felt for a long time that I needed balance in my life, but now that you asked the question what does balance mean to me, I find it to be eye opening for me. I am a realist and at this current stage I’m dealing with an optimist and it becomes difficult to structure a balanced life. For me balance is knowing when things will happen, how I will deal with things when they happen and planning ahead. Balance is knowing the now matters as much as the future does cos what we do now or maybe our actions now will have a bigger impact in our future.
So thank and I’m looking forward to the weekly mail.
So glad this post came to you at the right time! It sounds like being prepared is something that’s super important for you, and I’m exactly the same way. If I don’t feel prepared, I don’t feel balanced. Thanks for sharing what balance means to you!
I really like your style of writing Catherine, thanks for telling these reasons.
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Hey Catherine! I’m so happy I stumbled across this blog! I’ve been VERY overwhelmed lately and this post just reminded me to balance myself. When I’m balanced I have a realistic daily (& nightly) routine, a time set aside for myself (self-care is KEY), and I can actively work towards my short and long term goals. When I’m unbalanced, I meditate saying a grounding mantra speaking positivity over myself, plan more thoroughly, and make sure I am supported until i’m back to myself again.
Thanks for this great content
So glad this was helpful for you, Jayda! Love that you mentioned a realistic morning and night routine – that’s so important!
Hi Catherine. I’ve been searching “out of balance” and came across your post. Thank you for the insight you have offered. During this time of covid-19, I’ve become very complacent and stopped doing those things that make my soul sing…especially, self care. I know what I need to do but it’s been hard to move into action. After having back surgery and becoming disabled, I began to have a routine of self-care. The advise in your blog about being consistent as well as self disciplined was great insight for me.