Are your efforts focused on achieving success? If we aren’t careful, we end up starting well behind the starting line. Success is a multifaceted approach, and as life gets busy we often focus on the most pressing concerns. This can lead us to neglecting certain areas of our lives. If we neglect some pillars of success in our lives for too long, instead of progressing towards our success goals, we end up behind the starting line and need to repair past mistakes and neglects.
What does this “neglect” look like?
For example, you spend too long at work and your relationship with your wife/husband/partner is deteriorating. When you look at how you define success for your relationship, you need to repair the relationship before you can prepare and take action to achieve your desired goal. Or you skip the gym for too long, you'll need to regain muscle mass and heart health before you are able to push towards your fitness goals. Or you spend too much. Now you need to pay off your debts to bring yourself back to a place where you can continue working towards your financial goals. These are the neglects that need repairing if we fail to live a balanced life.
Got it - Live a balanced life. That doesn’t sound too hard. What’s the catch?
The challenge often arises when we are making these trade-offs. We justify to ourselves that we are furthering our careers, or other aspirations. Focusing on certain areas where we see increased growth, especially in the short term. Such as working extra hard for a few months leads us to the visible promotion, while the strain that overtime puts on our relationships takes far longer to show stress fractures.
If success is the pursuit of our ideal life, those stress fractures set us back. Our careers might be taking off, or we’re in peak physical shape, or our finances are exceeding expectations. But those stress fractures in other important areas of our life eventually cause us to falter. And if not repaired, our foundations can even come crumbling down around us.
What can we do about it?
Living a balanced lifestyle is easier said than done. When we’re caught up in the moments of day to day living, we often aren’t taking the 20,000 foot view. That birds eye view of our lives, objectively evaluating each of our pillars of success; Financial, Physical, Career, Spiritual, Relationships, and Romance. Routinely looking at all areas of our life at once helps us notice any trends that are forming, for better or for worse. This self-review is hard, which is why we need good friends and/or success coaches who can give us the hard news, the straight truth, when we need it most. Having someone else in your corner provides perspective on the day-to-day challenges we all face, and helps make sure our foundations stay strong.
Success is a long game, and it’s far more rewarding when we’re preparing for future growth and opportunities, rather than repairing the neglects of the past.