In my life coaching practice, I always give clients "The Wheel of Life" assessment to work on. Basically, it asks you to rate your fulfillment on a scale of 1-10 in 8 key areas of your life: Career, Money, Health, Family and Friends, Significant Other, Personal Growth and Contribution, Fun and Recreation, and Physical Environment. The idea is that if you plot your ratings on a pie chart, you can see whether your life is in balance. This is usually a big eye-opener for everyone. But not necessarily in the ways you'd expect. Here is a different take on the usual concepts about life balance...

1. Balance looks different for everyone. It depends on your values. You may want to put a great deal of emphasis on career and not be at all concerned about personal growth (that's probably not true if you're reading this, but what the heck!) The bottom line is that what you value most in life is where you will put your time and energy - and that will look really different than someone else's version of balance.
2. Your balance might look really unbalanced. You may be in a window of opportunity in life that naturally creates a great imbalance. For instance, if you are launching a brand new business, you may be putting a ridiculous amount of time and energy into that area of life and not much into the others. But it makes sense - for now.
3. Your idea of balance might be heavily influenced by "shoulds." Uh-Oh...are you listening to the voices in your head that belong to other people...or are you listening to your own heart?
4. Lots of unfinished projects create imbalances. You may feel like you just can't take time for other areas of your life when you have so much left to finish in one or two areas. Let go of the projects or finish them and get it over with!
5. Too many obligations create imbalances. Have trouble saying "No!" ??? If you want to put your focus on some new areas, you might have to back out of some previous commitments. Some folks really struggle with this, but the thing to keep in mind is that you said yes when your life looked a certain way, and now it doesn't look that way anymore. You might need to re-consider your ability to follow through on everything.
6. It can take a while to create balance. If you are over-committed, you might take a while to back out of those commitments. Or, you might take a while to get really good at saying "No!" Here's something to try if you have trouble with the "N" word - instead of saying no, say you need to take a day to decide whether the commitment is something you want to take on. Take that day to really assess the opportunity as it relates to your vision or goals. A little time may be all you need to make a terrific choice.
7. Or you can create balance really quickly. This is the clean-slate approach and is not for everyone. But it can be extremely powerful to disentangle yourself within a one or two week timeframe. Think about it this way: if someone you loved needed your immediate full attention for an extended period of time, you would back out of everything overnight. Maybe you, yourself, are that "someone you love" who needs your immediate full attention!
8. Balance may not be a great goal. Maybe it would make more sense to focus on honoring your values or getting your needs met. Sometimes this kind of focus automatically creates balance!
9. You might intentionally choose to be imbalanced. Got a big goal in mind? Perhaps you need to back-burner all other commitments to really achieve this goal.
10. Balance is an attitude. Who made up the rules around balance, anyway? Loving your life right this minute, just as it is, may be the absolute perfect balance for you!