A Balanced Life, LLC

A Road Map for Your Life

Like any other trip, we need a road map as we navigate through the journey of our life. Before the time of GPS or phone apps, I would often contact AAA and have them send me a TripTik before a road trip. They would ask me what was my ultimate destination. In addition, they would also ask me if there were any cities or points of interests that I wanted to see while on my trip. AAA did a great job of plotting out my road trip. They would send me maps of the states I would be traveling through and my designated route would be highlighted. All I had to do was get in the car and follow their directions.

We recently entered into a new year. Now is the time to stop and map out where we want to go and what we want to accomplish this year. Now is also the time to stop and plan how we are going to get our desired results. Having a resolution or an idea of what we want to accomplish is not good enough. We owe it to ourselves to stop and really plan how we are going to accomplish out goals and our dreams. This is what living intentionally is all about.

Excited About Tomorrow

I believe there is a big difference between living and existing.  When I have experienced different valley's in my life I was not necessarily excited about the possibilities of each new day.  My outlook of each day changed once I began to live my life instead of just existing.  Once I started to live my life, I began to be excited about each brand new day I was blessed to see. 

I was even able to deal with my challenges differently because I changed my outlook.  Now as I am getting ready for the next day I start to get excited about the possibilities of tomorrow.  When I wake up in the morning part of my prayer is that I thank God for a  new day that I have never seen before.  Then I think, WOW what an honor.  God granted me the opportunity to experience brand day!

When we give our children or loved ones give we want them to show some sort of appreciation.  As a parent, I think I would be disappointed if my daughter just disregared a gift that I gave her.  I would wonder what is going on if she did not say thank you.  And I might even get mad if I saw the gift just tossed in the corner.  I belive God feels the same when he grants us blessing, like being able to see a new day.

Since each day is a gift  I want to live so that I show God that I appreciate the gift that He has given me.  I want to take care of my gift and nurture my precious gift.  I want to handle the disappointments, challenges and triumphs in a way that brings honor to His name.  I want to make Him proud.  So, that is why I am excited about tomorrow!

Self Improvement Month

The month of September signifies many different things to me.  I immediately think that September is a chance to sneak in a last minute summer get away during the Labor Day weekend.  It also marks that time when kids go back to school.  This means that the warm lazy days of summer are over and they will soon be traded in for the fun fall leaves that will shortly be falling from the trees.  September is really special to me because I share September as my birthday month with many of my close friends.  So in my mind, September is a month of transition physically and mentally.

I was pleased to discover that September is Self Improvement Month. This is the perfect time of year to recognize what areas in our lives in which we can make improvements. There are many different things about each of us that use some improvement. Some of the areas we may look to improve can be :

• How well do we think we are balancing the various roles in our lives
• Health
• Relationships with family and friends
• Finances
• Giving our personal, spiritual and professional goals some clarity

Including September, there are 4 more months left in the year.  This is the perfect time to pause, be a little selfish and do some "me" work.  It is critical that we don't loose our sense of self or loose focus of our goals because we are busy with helping others be their best and achieve their own goals.  Remember, it is never too late to rebuild any part of our lives.

What Makes Your Heart Smile?

The amazing thing about life is that we have choices.  We can choose to do nothing and except what life dumps in our laps.  We can choose behaviors that have negative consequences. We can choose to invoke changes that will have a positive impact on our lives. Within us lies the power and ability to design a life that is full of integrity.

There is something that we should remember to consider when we are deciding on what changes to implement.  If we are trying to align our lives with our personal definition of integrity we should consider things that make our heart smile.  Our hearts should smile about all aspects of our lives. Our hearts should smile about:

• Our family
• The career we have chosen
• The friends and the company we keep
• Our finances
• How we spend our leisure time
• And the list goes on and on

There are so many people who have careers, relationships and materialistic things that detract from their lives.  However, our lives should be filled with things that add joy and make our heart smile.  I encourage each of you to really examine any areas that don't make our hearts smile.  Be honest with yourself and formulate a plan for change.  Your deserve a to have a life of integrity and one that makes your heart smile.

Define Your Integrity

As busy women, it is important for us to define who we truly are and where our life is headed.  Living a life of integrity and defining our integrity is the foundation for living a life that is balanced and fulfilled. It is important for us to ask ourselves Who Am I?

I like to define integrity as knowing WHO we are.  When I say WHO, I am speaking in regards to how WE define ourselves as women. WHO we are is not the same as WHAT people call us or WHAT we may do. These are what I consider to be roles we play or labels that are given to us.  For instance, our children call us mother; our spouse calls us wife; we may be a teacher.  These roles or labels may all be positive. However, they do not define WHO we truly are. When no one is around and we are by ourselves, WHO ARE WE?

Living a life of integrity allows us to answer that question.  It also allows us to define for ourselves WHO we are and What we are called to do in life.  Living a life full of integrity is not a destination.  It is a process.  Living our lives with integrity and aligning our daily actions with our calling is a journey.

Where Did the Year Go?

It is hard to believe that it is already October.  It seems like it was just last week that it was spring. Now, there are only 86 days until 2010. I can't believe it!  Where did the time go?  I started to ask myself some thought provoking questions after the initial shock wore off.  I asked myself:

What is goals do I want to accomplish the rest of the year?

How am I making progress towards these goals?

Do my goals for the remainder of the year align with my purpose?

What situations have I been avoiding to deal with this year?

What will be the results if I keep ignoring these situations?

These are just a few things that initially ran through my mind.  I challenge each of you to do some self reflection.  Often we go from day to day on auto pilot.  Take a little time to refocus your energy and determine your plan for the rest of year.  Let's end 2009 with renewed enthusiasm and energy together!

Finding Focus

Having focus in your life is very important.  There have been so many times periods in my life when I lacked clarity or focus.  I was trying to be many different things to many different people.  The goals that I had established were not genuine or authentic.  I had developed them according to what I thought I should try to achieve because of others expectations.  This was especially true at work.

 

It was like I was living my life through foggy glasses.  I had to stop and clear things up.  This process wasn’t all that pleasant.  It was hard to realize that years had passed and all the things that I had accomplished didn’t really have any meaning to me.  As painful as it was, it was necessary.

 

Once I cleared the fog, I started to enjoy my life.  I then began to set expectations and goals for myself that aligned with my internal compass.  I no longer felt as if I was going through the motions.  No longer did I achieve success by chance.  I achieved my success by choice, I was focused.

Maintaining focus is something that I do constantly.  When I am living life in focus, feel balanced.  When your life is feeling off centered, remember to regroup and focus.