1. Address the root causes of your imbalance. Do you want to please everyone? Do you think you’re not good enough if you can’t achieve twice as much as the next guy or girl? Ask yourself these hard questions, and then find out how to address them.
2. Find out what it is that other people really need from you. Your boss may not need you to work overtime; your child may be happy spending time with you at home instead of on an expensive vacation; the charity asking you to volunteer your time may be able to call somebody else if you’re already overburdened. Before placing demands on yourself related to other people’s expectations, clarify what those expectations are. If you have difficulty asking other people, consider fine-tuning your communication skills.
3. Ensure your actions are congruent with your values. If you believe your family comes first, honor that commitment with your time. If you treasure your health, give yourself adequate time for rejuvenation and self-care. Your time and energy is precious: when creating goals for yourself and taking on responsibilities, make sure you spend your personal capital on things you truly value.
4. Separate your work life from your home life as much as you can. Though some overlap is inevitable, you’d be wise to create healthy boundaries between your work and your home. That way, it becomes much easier to assess and prioritize the diverse demands you have in both these spheres of your life, without minimizing the importance of either.
5. Look after your health. A common symptom of work-life imbalance is a lack of proper self-care, resulting in poor health. Conversely, people thrive and find it easier to maintain their balance when they eat well, get adequate physical activity, and attend to their emotional health.
6. Prioritize. You may have many things you need to accomplish, but in order to accomplish any of them, you first have to decide what must be done now and what can be done later.
7. Focus. Don’t allow the other tasks awaiting you down the road at Point C or Point D to distract you from getting from Point A to Point B. Besides, focusing also helps you to truly live in the moment — which is what life’s all about.
8. Evaluate. Always consider what the ultimate purpose of your life is and whether your current direction is correctly aligned with the vision you have for yourself. If you’re a spiritual person, you might consider prayer or meditation.
9. Be willing to ask for help. As the English poet John Donne famously wrote, “No man is an island.” As human beings, we are designed to help one another with the challenges we face. Sometimes, this can be as simple as asking a friend to baby-sit or a co-worker to cover your shift. Other times, it involves reaching out for more formal types of help, such as counseling or coaching. Highly successful people know when to ask for help and willingly offer it to others in turn.
10. Be forgiving. Everyone makes mistakes. Forgiving others — and yourself — enables you to start each day anew and to see the big picture when it comes to life.
This information was provided by Mental Health Pros.