7 Steps to Mid-Life Balance

7 Steps to Create Work/Life Balance in Mid-Life

Challenge Yourself – delve into your habits and ideas and question whether they are still relevant and fit for purpose. Are they outmoded and in need of a revamp?

We often hang on to what’s familiar because it is preferable to making ourselves vulnerable. What makes us feel safe can also keep us stuck when in our hearts we know we need to let go.  Don’t allow limiting self-beliefs and stereotypical attitudes to hold you back. Change can be exciting, stimulating and will invigorate you.

Be Creative – let yourself day-dream and visualise your future. Create a vision board that expresses all the elements of your ideal life.  Set some dream goals for the future even if you think them unrealistic. It will free you to play and be imaginative and set the tone for a fun-filled third age.

Break routine, do new things or familiar activities in a new way. Get into flow – a state of being where you focus on an activity you enjoy, not on yourself. Although it will require concentration it will still be mentally relaxing.

Fulfil Your Potential – there is never a time to stop expanding your horizons, taking up new skills or learning for the sheer joy of doing so. And the benefits are tremendous. Not only will you be keeping the grey cells active, you will feel energised and vital from being stretched.

Fulfilling your potential also means being all that you have always wanted to be. Third age is not a time to play safe, it is a time to take risks. Be adventurous in seeking ways to let your light shine not just for your benefit, but for the benefit of others too.

Be Passionate – if you are fortunate enough to still have a passionate relationship, celebrate it. Love and intimacy may change with third age but can and should still be thrilling. Humans thrive on physical closeness and contact. Share what is in your heart with your loved ones in words or gestures. Behave as you did when you were young and in love and you will feel that way again.

Passion is not just about relationships though, it is about immersing yourself in something you believe in and to which you give yourself wholeheartedly.

Thoughts lead to feelings, lead to emotions.

Give thanks – it is easy and takes less energy to focus on the negatives but a good way to start the day is by reminding yourself of the small things for which you have reason to be thankful. You know what they are for you. Beginning on a positive note injects optimism that will set the tone for the day ahead.

Show your thanks to others who cross your path too. We never fully know the impact of our behaviour on others but nevertheless, we leave an impression on every person we meet.

Pace Yourself– slow down and start to set your own pace instead of being driven by someone else’s. The 9 – 5, 5-day week, or commuter journey, can be replaced with a more measured approach to work. Look at doing fewer hours or days. You will start to feel in the driving seat of your life. The upside is you will start to speed up and get a renewed energy for work of a different sort.

Design a new blueprint of working that could be part-time, paid or unpaid, volunteering, mentoring younger colleagues, or other businesses in your sphere of expertise.

Be Tech Savvy – Admitting, “ I know nothing about computers”, is a complete no-no. You might as well say you are a dinosaur. OK, so you may know the basics, but even so, you need to keep abreast of fast-moving changes that affect everyone’s life and work today. Take a refresher course to update computer skills.

Your work and life experiences are valuable and a younger generation can benefit enormously from them. Whether you are sharing your knowledge with younger family members or younger people in a work setting, it will have greater impact if you are willing to show an understanding of their tech-savvy world and language.

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