Strive for harmony and balance in all areas of your life

There is always a trade off when you are attempting to grow the level of success in one area of your life. The challenge is to try to limit the amount of imbalance as far as possible. Success in one area of your life at the expense of other areas is of little value.

Achieving financial independence very early in life by overtaxing your body and neglecting your health is pointless. Having millions in investments while you are lying in hospital recovering from a triple heart bypass operation is of little value. Or having no one to share you good fortune with, because you have alienated your family and your wife has left you and your children want nothing to do with you.

These imbalances are unsustainable and cause stress and anxiety. Avoid focusing all your energy in one area of your life and neglecting another. There are obviously times when you need to focus extra effort and energy in one area of your life than others. When you are starting a new venture or pursuing new interests there will be a time that you will be slightly out of balance. The secret is to not allow the imbalance to continue for too long as this will result in disaster.

Avoid paying too high a price in one area of your life to gain success in any other area. The way to get balance into your life is to first create a life plan that explores all areas in your life clearly describing goals for each area. These goals must cover your health, relationships, spirituality, career, finances, philanthropy and personal growth.

When you have a plan and measurement criterion for each area of your life, you are vigilant and will very quickly see any imbalances that may be developing. As soon as you observe a pattern of neglect in any area of your life, you must begin taking corrective action to bring things back into balance.

The mistake most people make is that they build their business or plans to achieve their big goals and ambitions first and then they try to fit all the other areas of their life in around these plans. This is a very bad way of achieving real and sustainable success as there is no way to avoid having a part of your life becoming the sacrificial lamb to the other area, where you are focusing all your energy. If you continue living your life this way, you will get to the end of your life and realize that you have paid too high a price and sacrificed the really important things, for empty success in only one area of life.

Life without balance may cost you:

1. Your Health
2. Spirituality
3. Happiness
4. Relationships

Do not pay too high a price for something you may not even want in the first place. Look around you and you will see so many people that achieve what they believe is important to them only to get lost in drug abuse, drunk driving arrests, family feuds, racist rants, depression and even suicide. Understand what success really means to you and put your energy into acquiring exactly that in your life. Do not pursue something that you do not even want in your life.

Identify exactly what you want to achieve in each area of your life and measure the outcomes you are enjoying in each area at least once a week. If anything is out of alignment take corrective action to bring yourself back into balance once again. This simple strategy will help you to find and maintain balance in all areas of your life and allow you to live a complete and fulfilling life.