
Life-Work Balance – Ep. 9: Own your life to achieve success
In the past couple of months, I introduced you to the concept of life-work balance, something that I’m very passionate about where life should come first, then you can focus on your business. When your body and mind are aligned and they work together, your well-being, energy, productivity, and focus improve. This can lead to a healthier you and also a more successful (and profitable) business professional. This can be achieved by following very simple principles every day.
We talked about Principle 1 (Eat Better), Principle 2 (Sleep More), Principle 3 (Exercise Regularly) and Principle 4 (Love Yourself). Today I’ll be talking about Principle 5 which is Own Your Life. It’s about putting together all the pieces of the puzzle from the other principles and really create the perfect life for you.
How do we create a perfect life? Well, we can start by looking at our superpowers and use them. Yes, we all have superpowers but we don’t use them enough. However, there are ways to discover them and use them to our advantage to improve happiness and achieve success.
We are all born with something special, creative skills that we should use every single day. But we don’t do it. Sometimes it’s because we don’t have the energy, sometimes because we lack confidence, sometimes because we don’t really know what to do with them.
How to find your superpowers? You can start by asking yourself these questions:
~ What are you good at in your personal life? Is it using your creativity? Is it connecting with other people?
~ What are you good at in your professional life? Is it your innovative vision? Is it being able to sell to clients easily? Is it seeing opportunities in things that others might miss?
If you can’t find special attributes about yourself, you can always ask your family or friends. I can guarantee that they will be able to identify your strengths and weaknesses. Wait, what? Why weaknesses? You’re probably thinking, we’re talking about superpowers, positive stuff, not negative stuff. Right? Well, let me explain…
Your confidence
Are you one of those people who follow up or do you wait for others to follow up with you? One of my coaching clients – I’ll never forget that – always refused to follow up with prospects because of an extreme lack of confidence. She thought that she wasn’t good enough for her job and she was afraid to connect with potential clients because she didn’t think she could win their business. Whenever she would meet with a prospect, she would always wait for the prospect to call back and close the deal. And it never happened, of course.
Don’t listen to your fears, go above and beyond and you will get what you want.
Remember: If you want to make a change in your life, only you can make it happen. Don’t wait for others to shape or change your life. That includes the principles we talked about in the past couple of months: make a change in your diet, make a change in your sleep habits, make a change in your workout routine, and change the way you dedicate time to yourself. Once you’re able to do it, you can make a change in your personal and professional life.
Your weaknesses
Is your superpower a weakness of yours?
We all have superpowers as I mentioned, but we also have weaknesses that we are aware of, and sometimes we try to avoid them. However, these could be used to create your success. Instead of trying to hide your weaknesses, make them work for your personal life and your business.
Dave Kerpen, CEO of Likable Media (a social media agency in New York City) did an activity with their team to identify weaknesses and find the corresponding strengths. So, if you are:
- Disorganized, that might mean you are Creative
- Stubborn, that indicates you are Dedicated
- Inconsistent, that can define you as Flexible
- Emotionless, that makes you very Calm (in some jobs you have to keep your cool)
- Shy (or introvert, like me), you are also Reflective
- Unrealistic, that makes you Positive
- Negative, that gives you a Realistic view of the world
… And so on
Your saying NO
This is also a very important part of Life-Work Balance, it really helps you keep everything in balance.
Have you ever noticed that resolutions or goals are all focused on new things that you need to “add” to your already long to-do list? Instead, what if you focused on things to get rid of?
Have you ever thought: Ahhh, I don’t want to go to this meeting, I don’t want to work on this project, I don’t care about this group of people I’m meeting with… ?
Make a list of those things that, if you stopped doing, would make a huge difference, and they would open the door to new and better opportunities, make more time for you and for the important people in your life. It could be a membership with an association, it could be extra work for someone you couldn’t say no to.
By getting rid of something in your life you create space for things that matter more in your daily routine, and you focus on the value of your time and energy.
The same concept applies to people around you. If any of your friends or co-workers or clients or the person in your relationship is bringing you down or constantly complaining, it’s time to change. You can’t accept a relationship that gives you negative energy. You don’t want to get exhausted trying to make it work. We simply don’t have the time in life.
Being in control
Work on managing your fears and lack of confidence instead of allowing them to control you. You are more than you think, you know more than you think, and you can help people more than you think. Give yourself more credit, notice what you have that others don’t.
You should start thinking about all these changes today, don’t wait, make it a priority, and become more confident by doing what you believe is right, and by working with your strengths and weaknesses.
This is why I decided to coach busy professionals. I realized that not all the entrepreneurs I was talking to were doing the same things I was doing for my business, and they were asking me for advice. Who am I to tell someone what to do? Believe it or not, there are people who need your help and you can help them by sharing your winning recipe which, for me, is Life-Work Balance!
Ask yourself these questions to get unstuck and move forward:
- What do I see in my life?
- What do I need in my life?
- What do I want in my life?
- How can I make a change in my life?
- What will I stop doing? What will I say “no” to?
- How can I improve my family or social life?
- What are my passions?
- How will I define success in my business?
- How can I improve my health?
Think about your personal, professional, and physical areas. You will realize that your personal life is tightly connected to your professional life and your health plays a very important role. Lack of time? Lack of inspiration? Lack of energy?
In order to succeed you will need to be committed and consistent in your action plan otherwise nothing will happen. You need to believe in yourself, you need to be driven and focused, only you can make all this happen.
Keep in mind that, whenever you decide to change something in your life, that new habit might affect your relationships (family, friends, work team, etc.) because you change your mindset, you modify your workflow or even your ethics. It’s very important that you surround yourself with supportive people who want you to succeed and reach your goals. Talk very clearly about this desire and intention of yours to commit with your spouse, with your friends, colleagues, even your clients if you think these changes might affect them as well.
Final advice: Focus on you, on your life first.
We’re often tempted to give priority to our job instead of our family, friends and ourselves. If you keep the focus on your personal life and on your well-being, your quality of work will improve as well. Also, try to focus on the positive things around you as much as possible in order to elevate your mood and improve your quality of life. Get rid of things that are causing stress, sadness or overwhelm. The same applies to people around you who can bring you down or limit your positive outlook towards life.
Once you understand this powerful connection between body and mind you will transform your life.
This is the last principle in Life-Work Balance, Own Your Life but it’s not over. Now we start with the fun! After learning about the five principles, you can apply them to your personal and professional life. Now that you created the foundation thanks to these principles, in the next weeks we’ll go deeper and really focus on each area every week. I can’t wait to share even more about what your body and mind can do together and allow you to live a fabulous life.
Let’s connect today for a new YOU! Schedule your FREE Clarity Call HERE
As a Holistic Precision Life Coach and creator of the Life-Work Balance System, I empower ambitious professionals and high achievers like you to optimize themselves and unlock their full potential, fostering enhanced well-being and productivity in their lives and careers. I combine innovative methodologies (epigenetics, neuroscience, chronobiology, and positive psychology) to facilitate profound lifestyle transformations.
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