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Dec
17
Written by:
adminsophia
12/17/2009 1:09 PM
 It is my belief that, if we look hard enough, there is something good to be found in even the most disastrous of situations! With the events of the latter part of 2009, the much publicised credit crunch and the subsequent consequences this may have had for many, perhaps we can reap benefits in 2010 by re-evaluating what is important to us and living our lives by a new set of rules that encourage balance. A perfect New Year's resolution for anyone is to aim for, or to maintain, fulfilment: a goal that is surely generic to the entire human race. But how can we make sure fulfilment does not evade us in 2010?
Every human being has a set of basic needs: the obvious ones such as food and shelter, water, etc. are unlikely to be things we are worried about. But we don't just have these basic physiological needs (usually ones we take care of quite well); rather we have many social and developmental needs too, that people are often not aware of as anything other than desires. For example, psychologists know that humans are fundamentally social animals and we have an instinctive need for loving and belonging; we should only ever neglect this need if our physiological needs are not met (rarely the case in modern society), yet many do. Many of us are happy with our finances and happy with our successes at work and our achievements in life, but not totally happy with all the other parts of our life that make up our needs and give us the chance to feel balanced and fulfilled.
Psychologists tend to agree that our lives can be divided into eight areas, each representing a spoke in our wheel of life. We should feel happy within each area in order to achieve a smoother ride in life - and this is the key to prioritising your goals as you address your life-balance. If we want to have a truly balanced life, we need to focus on all eight areas. Very busy people rarely have the opportunity to do so - yet such focus has been shown to be linked to ratings of happiness. Moderate success in all areas of life will make us much more content than excelling in just one or two.
Take some time to consider how happy you feel in relation to each of the following areas: family and friends, fun and recreation, personal growth, physical environment, finances, business and career, health and, finally, romance. If you are doing well in all areas, your goal is to maintain that. However if some areas are head and shoulders above the rest, it is time to divert some of the energy from the sectors of your life in which you are already doing amazingly well and refocus it into areas that need attention. From doing this exercise it should be clear where your energy needs to be focused in 2010. For the lucky few who have a balanced life (you would give yourselves a score of around 8/10 for each area), your role is simply a monitoring one. There will be times when one sector dips (for example, perhaps as a result of the last years' events your finances have taken a battering): the key here is not to react by shifting all your energy in correcting this one area, rather take what is needed to maintain the other seven life areas and focus all of what is left on improving the one area that you wish to develop. Keep an eye throughout the year on where you are in each area and adjust accordingly.
For many people there will not be a balance there to start with. In some instances, a huge amount of energy will have gone into one-five areas and others will have been neglected. The danger with this is that if, for some external reason, one or more of the very strong areas were to collapse (perhaps finances and career simultaneously) you are left with little else in your life to keep you going. All psychologists agree that the important thing about achieving goals and minimising stress in your life is in having control, and whilst you cannot have control of some things (e.g. the stock market collapsing) you can have control of enough to know that you will always have a well-rounded life and things to fall back on, so external factors are not quite so shocking to your system.
Look at the areas that need more energy and focus accordingly, a little at a time to start with. Perhaps start by setting some mini goals: for example someone that wants to develop fun and recreation might need to dedicate just one hour a week, initially, to trying something different, so they can stumble across things that they really enjoy and gain the motivation to put more energy into this life sector. Small steps towards growth in each sector are big steps towards balance and fulfilment. So when you think about 2010, think about what a great year it could be.
By Trudy Hill is a Psychologist and Health & Success Coach
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