{Day 31} of 31 Days of Balance: Relish the Normalcy

 Even though we've reached the end of our 31 day series on balance, I hope that you will still take a moment each day to determine what it is that would bring calm to your life, and then figure out how to reach it...even if it's only for a few moments.  So often we wish for the end of the day, for the end of a week, for the end of a season. And when I stop and think about it, I don't like it.  I don't like that I wish life away sometimes when it is so, so precious...no matter how unbalanced it may be. So instead (and it's a work in progress) I choose to find the small things that bring joy, that bring comfort, that bring peace. 

In the midst of the hectic, peace comes. And in the midst of the peace, hectic comes. Life is a balancing act. Relish the normalcy...it is sweeter than we know.

[If you want to start with this series from the beginning, click here. You can check out all the other 31-dayers here.]

{Day 30} of 31 Days of Balance: Perspective

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{Day 29} of 31 Days of Balance: Know When to Quit

Know when to keep trying. And know when to cut your losses and call it a day. If you're tiring yourself out and not getting anywhere, if what you're doing brings you absolutely no joy, and if you can't see how your efforts are going to get you to the bigger picture, quit. Focus you efforts on the things that are worthwhile to you. Don't waste your time on the others. 

[If you want to start with this series from the beginning, click here. You can check out all the other 31-dayers here.]

 

{Day 28} of 31 Days of Balance: Volunteer

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Now, don't go overboard.  We're trying to keep balance remember?  But sometimes all it takes is to help someone else to find out just how blessed we really are. Normally, we find that our haves far outweigh our have-nots. And that's a type of balance none of us are too unhappy with. When we take a look around, we realize that so many people lack balance in the other direction - their have-nots outweigh their haves. Restore a little balance to their lives when you can. You'd be surprised how much it will bring to yours.

[If you want to start with this series from the beginning, click here. You can check out all the other 31-dayers here.]

{Day 26} of 31 Days of Balance: Spend Less, Balance More

In so many areas of our lives, we find what's important when we cut the fluff. Try spending less for just one month. Cut out all the fluff. Cut out anything that's not a necessity. It's here that you will find the things that truly make you happy.  Do you really enjoy buying a cup of coffee out every morning, or is it just habit? If you miss it when you cut it out, then continue it, but make room for it in your budget.  Do you really need another black skirt, or are you buying it just because it's on sale?  When we cut our spending, we find out the things that are really important for us to have, and we learn to leave out the ones that aren't.  A balanced budget is part of a balanced life. What can you cut first?

[If you want to start with this series from the beginning, click here. You can check out all the other 31-dayers here.]

{Day 25} of 31 Days of Balance: Choose Your Mentors Wisely

It's a good thing to have someone to look up to in your profession and in your current stage in life. But so often we look to those in our fields who are the most "successful" by world standards. Maybe they make the most money. Maybe they have the highest position. Maybe they have the most power. Maybe they are the most popular. Maybe everyone knows who they are. Maybe they won the most cases. 

But when we're talking about balance, work is only a part of it. Balance is about a lifestyle as a whole. Instead of looking to some of the typical "success" stories, seek out people in your field who have managed to have a successful career, yet have a strong marriage after 25 years. Look up to the people whose children want to be around them. Look up to the people who have made the biggest difference in the lives of others.  Look up to the people who have best friends. Look up to the people that others praise, even when they aren't around.

Make sure the people that you're looking up to are people that you actually want to be like. Are they balanced, or are you working toward being a person you don't really want to be?

[If you want to start with this series from the beginning, click here. You can check out all the other 31-dayers here.]

{Day 24} of 31 Days of Balance: Define Your Own Worth

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You decide your own worth. Not your boss. Not your spouse. Not your children. Not your pastor. Not your friends. Not the people who intimidate you. What makes you feel successful? What makes you feel like you have your life in order? What makes you feel balanced?

[If you want to start with this series from the beginning, click here. You can check out all the other 31-dayers here.]

{Day 23} of 31 Days of Balance: Find Support From Others Like You

While I admire the patience and devotion of stay at home moms, it would do me no good to seek support and understanding from them for my own life. Their "balance" looks much different than my own. 

You all have heard me talk about G time and time again. When it comes to support and understanding and "maintaining the sanity," she is a huge part of my own support system. Why? Because we're like each other.  We get what it means to be so exhausted after an Evidence exam that you don't even want to speak because that requires thinking and forming words. She also balances a full time job, law school, and a marriage on a day to day basis. We can relate. She helps me stay balanced. And she tones down the crazy before with empathy and spares Eric a lot of complaining at the end of the day.

Find people who are like you. Support them. Let them support you. Restore the balance. 

[If you want to start with this series from the beginning, click here. You can check out all the other 31-dayers here.]

{Day 22} of 31 Days of Balance: Be Flexible

"Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape."

[If you want to start with this series from the beginning, click here. You can check out all the other 31-dayers here.]

{Day 27} of 31 Days of Balance: Self-Reflect Often

So many times, we wait until we hit rock bottom before we sit back and think about what's wrong. I'm as guilty as anyone. I wait until I'm exhausted to figure out that I'm not getting enough exercise or enough sleep, and that's why I have no energy during the day. And it's a pattern...normally at about week 9 or 10 of a 13 week semester.  Instead of waiting until you can't go anymore, self-reflect often. Weekly, daily even, if you need to. How are you feeling?  What did you do this week that really energized you, that made you feel good about yourself? That was the most productive for your day?  What was the least productive? What made you cry? 

Reflect on those things, and then change the ones that aren't working for you.  It's easier to do this on a weekly or daily basis than when you have already worn yourself thin.  Balance comes in small steps...don't wait until you're at your wit's end to make the changes.  

[If you want to start with this series from the beginning, click here. You can check out all the other 31-dayers here.]

{Day 21} of 31 Days of Balance: It's a Date

 The best thing that I did to balance work and home when I started law school was to start making dates. With my husband, with my friends, with my family...for everything. Even small things, like cook dinner at home. And then I stuck to them. 

Last year, my husband and I bought tickets to a show months and months in advance and then....an exam was scheduled for 2 days after that. We kept the tickets and went to the show. My classmates thought I was insane, but I had planned in advance for it, and I still did quite well on the exam.

When we get busy, it's easy to neglect the people and the relationships that matter the most to us, because we know they'll always be there for us - through thick and thin. Instead, let's make them a priority - just as much as any exam, or deadline, or project going on. These people are our constants - our balance - in the midst of the craziness of life. Set apart time for them, not as an afterthought, but as an important part of every week. And try your best to keep the commitment.

Our loved ones want to be the good, the comfort, the positive thoughts that balance out the everyday. Let them.

[If you want to start with this series from the beginning, click here. You can check out all the other 31-dayers here.]

{Day 20} of 31 Days of Balance: Removing the Limitations

Team Cody

What "limitations" are your excuse today?

 [If you want to start with this series from the beginning, click here. You can check out all the other 31-dayers here.]

{Day 19} of 31 Days of Balance: Embrace the Seasons

We all know of my love for all things seasonal...Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, I love them all. Our home decor changes on a regular basis. Yet...when it comes to change in our day to day lives, it's often not as easily accepted. One change leads to another. We know that a Christmas tree can easily come down, and can easily go up again the next year. We have control over that. Often, we have no control over the changing of seasons in our lives. We certainly can't control time. And that makes us uncomfortable. Off kilter. Unbalanced. 


Right now, we are all enjoying autumn together. The pumpkins, the cozy throws, the smell of cinnamon and coffee and baked goods rolled into one, the anticipation of winter and the holidays. But then...the new will wear off, and we will start to anticipate spring and warmer weather. And then when the heat of summer rolls around, we will start to anticipate fall once again.


Such is life. You're young, but you want to be older. You get older, but you want to be younger. You're in college, but you long to graduate. You graduate, and then long for carefree days again. You get married, then you want babies. You have babies, you long for alone time again with your husband. You're in law school, and you can't wait to pass the bar and be done. You pass the bar, and then...oh wait, you're still glad to be done with law school. Bad example :)


Enjoy each season as it comes in your life, for it will surely fade away. Sometimes to something better. But there is something unique about every experience you go through. Find it. Experience it. Live it. Love it.

via Pinterest

Soak up the learning and networking opportunities you have while you're in school. Get real life experience before you have real life consequences. Enjoy the anticipation...you have your ENTIRE life ahead of you.


Enjoy time with your husband before the babies come. They will surely change your lifestyle. Enjoy the nights where you cuddle on the couch and then get to sleep for 8 hours straight.

Make it through crazy hours at your very first real job with your greater purpose in mind. What you do now very much affects what you do later. If nothing else, you will have a greater appreciation of your time off.


Enjoy your children when they are little and laugh at the day-to-day. Getting back those moments is surely not akin to putting up the Christmas tree again next year.


Love on your parents and enjoy watching them enter a new season as grandparents.


Enjoy growing older with your husband. The best relationships only get better with age. 

Enjoy the season of life that you are in right now. At the very least, accept it. Work through it with a goal in sight.

Balance foresight with hindsight. The past with the present. The present with the future. 

Be content with what each day holds, for you know what they say...the best is yet to come.

[If you want to start with this series from the beginning, click here. You can check out all the other 31-dayers here.]

{Day 18} of 31 Days of Balance: Redecorate

Sometimes a change of scenery is good for the soul. Something new for the senses. A fresh start. You'd be surprised how good it will make you feel to spruce up your home a little. Because that's what it is...your home. Your comfort zone. Your center. Use that space to make you happy when you arrive. It doesn't take much...

Maybe it's using what you already have to create a little coffee bar in your kitchen...

Maybe it's opening your curtains or shades and rearranging the pillows on the couch...

Maybe it's adding a small touch of holiday to the room you're in most...

And if you're like me, and you're in your car and at the office so much that it feels like you live there...

A yummy air freshener....

Or something pretty on your desk...

Change something in your surroundings for the better and enjoy the lift in your mood. If you're going to be there, it might as well make you happy. Balance the work with the play, the discomfort with the pleasant.

[If you want to start with this series from the beginning, click here. You can check out all the other 31-dayers here.]

*All images in this post via Pinterest.*

{Day 17} of 31 Days of Balance: Set a Schedule

Don't let this become you...

 

Are you not following a schedule, because you're too busy writing a schedule? Any compulsive planners out there? I have been there. Stop it. 

Make a schedule. Try it for a few days. Adjust the things that don't work. And then use it.

Want to start working out more? Cooking your own healthy meals? Keep the house clean during the week? Schedule it. Make it a habit.

Want to stop smoking? Want to stop buying coffee out every morning? Want to get more sleep and stop staying up so late? Schedule your way out of these things. Don't allow time in your day for them.

When things become routine, they become habit. And when they become habit, they are no longer a struggle. This, my dears is reaching balance.

[If you want to start with this series from the beginning, click here. You can check out all the other 31-dayers here.]