Life comes at us fast. When our feet hit the ground in the morning there are many different ways that the day could unfold. It could go exactly as we would like it to, but often, unexpected things pop up throwing our day into turmoil. We can get control of our day when we realize that life works best when we have balance, control our expectations and practice purposeful planning.

Balance: You need to have balance in your life. It is difficult to truly appreciate many things unless you have experienced the lack of or the opposite of them. It is hard to appreciate a calm day if you haven’t experienced a very busy one or a super social evening without having had quiet, home-bound evenings.

Expectations: We need to remove the expectation that we shouldn’t come up against resistance. By realizing that we will always have barriers and that they are an expected part of the journey, we can reduce feelings of frustration when they pop up.

Planning: Failing to plan is planning to fail.

When life works best, we will have planned out our day. Ideally, starting out with something that fills our motivational tanks will set our day up in a positive way. This will look different for everyone, but examples would be exercise, meditation, or Bible study. Follow this by balancing out the “me” time with work time, kid time, home time etc. In a practical way we are set up for a perfect day.

However, the best laid plans will never happen all of the time and this should never be our expectation. We should expect that life will throw us curve balls and we will need to be flexible and shift with whatever the day brings.

Making specific plans for your week, and writing them down, can keep you from aimless, unproductive, unfulfilling days.

ABC goal setting as suggested by Trish Blackwell in her Confidence Podcast. Make lists of you’re A, B and C goals.

A goals – have to happen first, today or now

B goals – need to happen in a few days or weeks

C goals – are important but have no sense of urgency

Journaling Questions:

1. When was the last time you thoroughly reviewed your schedule? At first glance do you feel balanced in your life?

2. When you hear the expression “saying yes to something, means saying no to something else” does this bring up any emotion for you?

3. Do you have a method to your planning? Have you ever tried ABC goal setting?

4. Do you have an expectation that you should never come up against resistance? If you could ever get past (fill in the blank) that it would then be smooth sailing?

Homework:

Your homework is to read back through your journaling questions and utilize this insight to make any changes you think you may need. Write out your wins and your barriers, you are not going to change everything in a week, but at least you now have a road map to where you are going!

Goal setting will always be part of your homework. Once a week write down your focus or goals for the week. Every Friday reassess them, tweak them or change them to fit your needs. It’s “Your journey, your way”.

Links:

Lindsey House:

www.healthaccountabilitycoach.com

www.facebook.com/houselifestyles

Direction Not Perfection, Accountability and Coaching from your Wine-loving Dietitian

https://braughlerbooks.com/store/books/direction-not-perfection

Trish Blackwell

https://www.trishblackwell.com/?s=when+life+works+best