How to Build a Balanced Life in a Workaholic World

The following are excerpts from the book Coming Up For Air by Beth Sawi

Where to Find Time

The animals in the kingdom get together to complain about the human beings.
“They take my wool,” bleats the sheep. “And then I feel cold when the night comes.”

“They take my eggs,” clucks the hen. “I will never have a brood of chickens.”

“They take my milk,” lows the cow, “without even bothering to ask.”

Then the snail speaks up. “I have what humans want more than anything else but they can’t take it from me. I HAVE TIME.”

Stay Conscious of How You Spend Your Time

While the most important factor to having a balanced life is priority management, the second most important is time management. In many ways, time is like money. You can invest it, spend it on something you value, or you can waste it. But unlike money, you can’t save it for another day. So as you work to have balance in your life, ask yourself; what have you done with your last few hours? Did you use them as an investment, doing something you didn’t particularly enjoy but knowing that a positive payback would result? Were they spent devoted to one of your Personal Priorities, whether at home or at work? Or were they depleted thoughtlessly, dribbled away on some activity that brought neither joy nor peace nor a sense of accomplishment to your life?

Every day each of us is presented with twenty-four hours. Each of us chooses how to spend that time. Demands on that time, like demands on your wallet, always exceed what is available. To create and maintain balance in your life, you have to divide your time wisely, so much for your work life, so much for your home life, so much for rest and renewal. Unfortunately, once you have made those divisions, other people will ask you to change your mind and give your time to them instead.

Remind yourself that people who ask you for your time are like people who beg for money. You don’t hand out your money to anyone who asks. Yet when someone requests a piece of your time, are you embarrassed to refuse? Some people presume that your ten minutes can be theirs for the asking. Tell them they are wrong. Those ten minutes belong to you and your Priorities.