Work, Life, Training Balance

Although having laser like focus on a specific goal is necessary at times, for the majority its important to find balance. It seems that when one pillar of our life goes strong, lets say our professional life, our family life or health an well-being suffers as a consequence. Often I’ll see people in the gym that have this laser like focus on losing body fat – they are training hard, often twice a day and their diets are super strict and as a reward they see results fast! But then they burn out.. Badly. This results in a one or two week fast food and dessert binge. There is nothing more demotivating then seeing all that hard work disappear faster than it came! Although fast results are always welcomed, personally I believe results achieved over a longer period of time are better for 2 reasons – 1. They are normally long lasting and 2. You don’t have sacrifice too much of the other aspects of your life to get there. Here’s the pillars of health I value most in order to achieve balance:

1. Physical Fitness: to be happy with your body and free from sickness – eat foods that provide essential nutrients to your body and challenge yourself with workouts!
2. Social Health: to have meaningful relationships with people who add value and enrich your life. Surround yourself with people who motivate you to be better and celebrate your achievements. I think travelling is an essential part of life so taking a vacation annually is something that can’t be overlooked.
3. Mental Fitness: to be passionate about your job and have drive to progress in your career. I believe constant learning is crucial for mental health, 4-5 hours of study per week is a good place to start. Learn about things that interest you –  I’m currently learning Spanish.
4. Spiritual Health: be grateful, be humble and learn to live in the present.
5. Emotional Health: to be in control of your emotions and be able to express them comfortably. I also believe having a healthy sex life falls in this category!
6. Financial Health: I think the main issue with financial health is the stress it brings if your aren’t satisfied with your financial situation. Again this goes back to your professional life – I have never met anyone who was passionate about their work who had serious financial issues.

If you want to achieve a healthy lifestyle you must take steps to ensure you maintain a certain level of balance – spiritually, physically, emotionally, socially, mentally and financially. You need to balance your health, work, family, and all the other areas of your life without spreading yourself too thin and having a guilt trip when you do one thing, but think you should be doing another. All of the key areas of our lives overlap and interlink, effecting each other. At times of course some aspects will trump others and take priority but unless we create for ourselves satisfaction in each and every part of our life, we can never truly be fulfilled, or live a contented, happy and healthy life.