Day 5: Keep in Balance

The third step towards giving full effort for your priorities is balance. I'm not talking about "Work-Life balance" (as if work is not a part of life!); this is about feeling fulfilled and satisfied with your life, having a good mix of work and play, effort and rest, and steadily accomplishing the things that give your life a sense of purpose. 

Balance has two parts- 

-You want to give regular attention to each of your priorities each week, and not create any "low-status" priorities.

-And you want to hold your intentions lightly in the complexity of life. If you are driven to complete everything on your list at all costs, you may miss an opportunity to open your heart, or to grow, or find peace within.

Remember that your vision, mission, values, beliefs, and principles are your compass, and how you want to proceed down your path. I'm talking now about finding the kind of balance where what you are doing leads where the compass is pointing, and you feel relaxed and unstressed as you travel that path. You create this kind of balance with good planning, by remembering your intentions, and also by being flexible but discerning when life offers you choices. 

For example, even though I might start the day with reasonable expectations to do x-y-z, when my daughter calls to ask if she can drop the baby off for a couple of hours I (of course) say "YES!" My family is a priority, and some other priorities can wait for another day.

Or perhaps I just don't have any energy. I decide to take a bath and a nap, and don't wake up until 4 p.m.! I obviously needed to take care of myself - my health is a priority. Such is life. I'm not going to waste energy feeling disappointed with myself.

Balance and Full Effort can seem to be counter-intuitive... How can you sustain personal motivation and determination, and also be flexible and hold your intentions lightly? How can you maintain full effort while also leaving yourself such a large loophole?

Life is full of ambiguity and paradox - embrace it and flow with it!

This week you have created some kind of daily Intention Ritual and Full Effort Practices... Today, you will find ways to fit balance into your full effort habit. Get out your journal:

• First, set yourself some targets for your priorities: You want to give "regular attention" to each of your priorities each week - what does this mean to you? Some priorities might need a daily action and some less. You can choose a weekly target or you might just want to rotate through your priorities, acting on 2 - 3 different ones each day. As long as you are acting on each of your priorities regularly, you can feel satisfied.

And YOU get to decide what "regularly" means. For example, I've set myself a purely random goal of studying something 6 days a week, which was fun and manageable for a very long time. But now that I'm writing for more hours, I've decided to lower my expectations on that priority temporarily. How you keep track of this is up to you, but journaling about your level of satisfaction is helpful.

• Remember to look at your priority plan every morning when you set your intentions, and make adjustments: Shift things around on your plan until your day looks manageable. 

• And then, be flexible but discerning during the day: When something or someone throws a monkey wrench into your careful plans, pause a moment and touch in with your Inner Guide. Ask: ""How can I be true to my priorities? Does this moment call for some flexibility, or do I say NO?"

• Finally, recognize your successes: At the end of the day, check off your chart, or journal about the priorities you have touched on or completed, or speak out your gratitude. Find some way to acknowledge that you have had a day that was meaningful and satisfying.

Next Week Schedule, Step 1: 

• Thursday - Adjust your Priority Grid for the month: Check off what you have completed, add new items you have thought of, and move anything down lower that no longer fits.