Life Balance Month

January is set aside each year as Life Balance Month in Chase’s Calendar of Events.  A Life Balance Kit is mailed upon request and interviews are given via radio, internet and television.  This is also the NUMBER ONE requested topic of Meeting Planners.

If you can answer these 10 tough questions you’ll learn how to Balance Your Life This Month!

1. Do you know where your TIME GOES each week?
2. What’s YOUR definition of SUCCESS?
3. When was the last time you took a BIG risk?
4. How do you GIVE BACK to this world? What’s your PURPOSE?
5. What have you done for YOU lately?
6. Are you PEOPLE CONNECTED?
7. Live a life of significance. How are you leaving LEGACY RETURNS?
8. How are you GROWING?
9. Have you adopted these two QUALITY OF LIFE Rules?
10. Do you abide by this philosophy? NO MORE HOUSE WORK, YARD WORK or WORK WORK on weekends?

Q: Do you know where your TIME GOES each week?

A: Do you use (not just own) a Time Management Tool? The answer should be yes! Most of us just “don’t know where the time went” “Time flies” Yes it does, and if we could change our mindset and see our time as something precious, as precious as money, I believe we’d be choosier about where and on whom we spent it. So…time = money. Ask others how they keep track of appointments, birthdays, and phone numbers. TIP: There can be only ONE place for these things, not 2 or 3 books because then you are wasting time hunting which book is for which subject.

CHALLENGE: Purchase a time management tool and USE it

Q: What’s YOUR definition of SUCCESS?

A: With the hustle-bustle of life, many people have never STOPPED in their tracks and asked themselves “How would I define success?’ If you don’t take the time to define it for yourself, others will do that task for you……and before you know it they are telling you how you should live. “If you lived here, or drove this car, or made this amount of money, then you’d be successful” NO! Success can be yours each and every day if you KNOW your definition and live by your definition the best you can. AND don’t forget your definition will change as you go through life. My teenage son defined success as “owning a Porsche and a beach house.” My mom says “Success is having your children remember your birthday and call you on Mother’s Day”.

CHALLENGE: Define it and frame it up somewhere so that you can see it. That will be your beacon light on your path to creating a balanced life

Q: When was the last time you took a BIG risk?
A: Risk-taking is healthy for the body and soul. Here’s another sign you can post: Seek out FIRST time experiences in the SECOND half of your life. When did you learn to ride a bike, swim, blow a bubblegum bubble? Maybe that’s why we had so much fun in our youth. But that fun can and should continue for the rest of our lives. It can be learning a new language, a new style of cooking, or bungee jumping. It all counts!

CHALLENGE: List 3 risks you would like to take this year, research them, and then set a plan to achieve them.

Q: How do you GIVE BACK to this world? What’s your PURPOSE?

A: Do you know of someone who worked hard their entire life, retired, and in just a few months died? Research has shown that a retired person (with PURPOSE) will live 7 years longer than one who “just retires”. Today you are going to trade 24 hours of your life….for what? Hopefully not just to breathe air, but to make a difference. It can be creating art, volunteering, working diligently on a hobby…something that you look forward to.

My father tells me that my mother is his purpose in life. She has multiple sclerosis and is wheelchair bound. He has been and continues to be her caregiver. He feels he makes a difference in her care. There are so many ways to make a difference in this world from just working with a small, local group of people to something as simple as protecting our environment by planting trees and recycling.

CHALLENGE: Write down 5 ways you are giving back to this world.

Q: What have you done for YOU lately?

A: Remember FUN? A well balanced life requires laughter and fun EVERY DAY! The health care industry has well documented humor and it’s effects on pain and healing in hospitals. That’s why long term health care facilities have “Humor Carts” full of comedy films, and audio/ video tapes. Did you know that a child laughs an average of 300 times a day where an adult’s count is just 6-8 times?

CHALLENGE: List 3 things that you REALLY enjoy and then write down the last time you did any of these. Now…. list 30 things you would enjoy and commit to doing one a day this month.

Q: Are you PEOPLE CONNECTED?

A: Isolation is seen in every age group. Why do we separate ourselves? Illness, depression, tiredness, wrong priorities….even money! I’d like for you to list the names of three good friends. Did you name someone you work with? Well, then you need to Get a Life and expand your circle of friends OUTSIDE your working environment. Why DON’T we spend time with friends? “The house is dirty, and that means more WORK, I work enough already.” “It costs money to feed them plus the mess to clean up afterwards.” “I can’t let them see this torn wallpaper, I have to make household repairs first”. These are usually the first three responses I get from my audiences. So one week turns into one month and before you know it it’s been a year since you’ve “played” with your friends. Here’s an idea I’d like to recommend that has brought unexpected bonuses:

CHALLENGE: 1. Divide your friends up geographically along with your town into North, South, East, and West segments. 2. Schedule to meet these people once a quarter at a restaurant on their side of town (make sure there is also something attached for those who want to play longer….i.e. comedy or jazz club, pool hall, disco, etc.) immediately after work. I found if you set the time for 7 p.m. and let them go home first, inevitably something happens at home and some of the people will cancel last minute.

If you have a driving distance between these two places, you will lose members of your caravan. 3. Make sure the invitation is for a WEEK NIGHT not a weekend. Remember weekends are for time investments with family. When your evening is over, each person picks up their own tab, and the clean up is left for the professionals.

CHALLENGE: Schedule your first “Friends Night Out” event.

Q: Live a life of significance. How are you leaving LEGACY RETURNS?

A: How will you have made a difference with those you LOVE? Have you shared your history with your family members on tape or in writing? There are several questionnaire type books available for grandparents to journal in for loved ones. If you are not a grandparent how are you leaving a legacy for your children? The average American father spends 7 minutes a day with their child. Take what precious time you have and make wise investments that bring legacy returns. How? Tuck ‘em in! I watched my brother tuck his son in one night and asked him this question, “Joseph, what did you like about your day?” I could hear exuberance in his voice and I thought “what a wonderful way to end the day and leave a legacy”. If you are not a parent, close your day by tucking someone you love in, by telephone or letter. Maybe it will be your mother, or an aunt, or a neighbor that you appreciate.

CHALLENGE: Tuck someone in tonight for Legacy Returns.

Q: How are you GROWING?

A: I heard a wonderful saying “When you’re green, you’re growing, when you’re grown, you’re beginning to rot!” This is a wonderful world we live in with opportunities too numerous to count. How are you expanding your mind? Seek out opportunities to learn through audio tapes, books, visiting different cultures, listening to different types of music, attending a church of a different faith than yours. This isn’t the same as Risk taking, this is a daily growth habit that will keep your life in balance. I had two grandfathers. One died at 66 after he had retired at 65. He retired to a big overstuffed chair in front of a living room window. My other grandfather died at 90. He grew in knowledge by getting involved with the latest technology trends. He had a camcorder and VCR before I even knew they existed. He ran the Ohio State Horse Show. He watched controversial, conversational television. He lived and learned each day until the last day of his life.

CHALLENGE: What do you know today that you didn’t know yesterday?

Q: Have you adopted these two QUALITY OF LIFE Rules?

A: First Rule: Lower Your Standards Second Rule: Be Appreciative of the Help You Get. I know you’re asking “How LOW do I go?” When I was younger, we had a housekeeper come every week….and my mother would clean BEFORE she got there. Well, when was the last time you went to a friends home wearing white gloves so that you could check the dust on their window sills? People are more precious than dust! And when y you’ve gone to someone’s home for dinner are you unable to help with the dishes because you just couldn’t load their dishwasher the “right way?” Where is the rule book on the right and wrong place to load dishes? AND when you DO get help, say THANK YOU. Be appreciative instead of educating them to your definition of the right way to do things. If you’ll do that I guarantee you’ll get help again in the future.

CHALLENGE: Make two big visual signs on paper with these two rules and post them up somewhere so that you can see them on a daily basis.

Q: Do you abide by this philosophy? NO MORE HOUSE WORK, YARD WORK or WORK WORK on weekends?

A: WOW! Wouldn’t this be a great way to live? Actually I’m here as a mother of five to tell you that it is possible and realistic! All you have to do is use a tool I call Nibblin Livin©. Ask yourself, “Can I do these things in bite size pieces?” We cut the front yard of our home on one night and the back yard on another. We wash one load of clothes a night. One of my audience attendees told me she cleans one story of her home one week and the second story the next week. Pick up things that are out of order as you move from one room to another. We keep a clothes basket by our staircase and whoever goes up the stairs has to empty the basket. Upstairs it’s filled with things out of place (that should be downstairs) and whoever is going downstairs with empty arms is delegated to take that basket with them and unload. This system works. I have several letters to testify to it!

CHALLENGE: Ask what you can do in bite size pieces this week and then get started on them. Did you know this will also work with those projects you have been procrastinating on?

This material is copyrighted and excerpted from Sheryl Nicholson ’s newest book “How to Get A Life……Balanced” is due to be released in 2002. No copying or reprinting is allowed without calling our offices for permission.

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