Improving Mindfully has been created to serve as a guide in improving life with purposeful steps. Creating goals is one thing, but creating purposeful goals has more meaning and therefore goals that are purposeful are more likely to be achieved. We make goals every day and sometimes spontaneously without placing much thought into it. Have you ever found yourself deciding to start a diet after consuming a large meal that made you feel bad about yourself? How did this turn out?

My guess is that you stuck with the diet for few days and then returned to your old habits. This is easy to do when we neglect to place enough thought and planning into our goals. Therefore, it is best to start by asking yourself what is the purpose of this goal? From there on out you ask yourself further questions that will enforce this goal such as:

• How will achieving this goal make me feel?
• What areas in my life will change if I achieve this goal?
• What will happen if I decide to not make any changes?

These questions are there to inspire purposeful actions. I use a lot of motivational interviewing techniques to trigger behavior change. On the Improving Mindfully website you will find articles about different aspects of life that you may be looking to improve. There are articles on fitness and nutrition as well as on home, travel, and family topics. 

Creating a Balance

Spending time with family, traveling, and keeping your home organized and clean does not always come easy. Moreover, trying to keep up with fashion and taking care of yourself and your physical appearance can sometimes end up on the low priority list. Finding a balance with work, family, traveling, home responsibilities, and self-care is the lifestyle that many search for. Sometimes life can become so overwhelming that it makes us wonder if there is such a thing as balance. The good news is that yes, there is such a thing as balance. The bad news is that it will require work on your part to create habits that will promote and instill this balance.

Habits and Balance

Balance is based on your daily habits. Do you procrastinate a lot? Do you forget to put things away? Do you only clean and organize when you can no longer look at the mess? Do you postpone your traveling plans because you feel that you have too much work to do and therefore tell yourself that you will go on a trip when you are all caught up with work? Newsflash! You will never catch up. There will always be something that will need to get done. However, this is not a bad thing. It is good to have things that need your attention. This is what gives your life meaning.

The reality is that if you had absolutely nothing to do because you were all caught up on work, home chores and everything else, eventually you would get so bored that you would start to question your existence. That is not what you want. Having tasks gives you a purpose. So, it is good that you have a lot to do. You just have to find a medium and ensure that certain aspects of your life are not left neglected.

Another thing that you do not want is postponing important things because “you have to get your stuff done first.” There will always be stuff, however time we are limited on. Therefore, let us make the best of the time that we are fortunate to have. Avoid procrastination at all costs and find time to attend to all aspects of your life.

Steps to Creating a Balance

Now, we should get back to creating a balance. As indicated previously, balance requires for you to develop habits that will aid you in managing all aspects of your life. These habits are formed by examining the person that you need to become in order to live the life that you are seeking. This may entail becoming more organized, managing your time better, becoming a minimalist, changing your fashion, or as simple as being more mindful within every area of your life.

My recommendation is to step back and take a look at the areas that need the most improvement. Then, ask yourself why you need those areas to be improved. Is it because you want to make more time for family? Do you want to feel better about yourself? Are you searching for more meaning? Whatever, the reason may be, it is important to explore it so that it can serve as a reminder when improvement becomes a challenge. When challenges arise, you will be able to say to yourself: “I will manage my priorities better because it allows me more time for vacations with my family/friends.” Knowing why you want to make changes is a great motivator for long-lasting change.

Creating a Plan

So, once you have discovered the areas in need of improvement and the reasons behind it, you must come up with a plan on how you will go about improving those areas. You may need resources to be able to carry out your plan. This is where I come in. In this blog you will find different ideas on improving your lifestyle.

Those ideas could be as simple as planning for a trip, or as cumbersome as keeping your home tidy. I recommend using a note book or a journal to track your progress and to write your plan out. Putting it on paper can sometimes give us that extra push that we need to commit to changes. Moreover, it can help us track our progress, which can aid in keeping us on track. So, read on to explore the resources that I have put together. Most importantly, do not forget to check back in or subscribe because I put new ideas out regularly to help make your life simpler.