Conquering the Creative Work-Life Balance: Focusing on the Big 3

Okay, so last Tuesday, I ended our discussion by mentioning that I’d be focusing on “those areas of life that will move me in the direction of life improvement for Jana for the better.” And just so you know, this blog is not a one-sided deal. Therefore, I fully want to bring you along my work-life balance journey with me. Then, you can take the steps I’m going through and apply them personally to your own, unique set of work-life challenges, and hopefully, simplify life as well.

Sound like a plan? Hope so.

And let’s proceed . . .

Since it’s virtually impossible to do ALL THE THINGS, my goal is to decrease the clutter in my life this year. So, it’s going to be imperative that I concentrate on those THINGS that are going to propel me forward (in a positive direction) in life and do away with the excess. And to that end, I will focus on the areas that . . .

Wait a minute. Rewind. Let me spin that around and bring you in the forefront.

So, it’s going to be imperative that we concentrate on those THINGS that are going to propel us forward (in a positive direction) in life. (Oh, that’s much better). And to that end, we’re going to focus on the areas that:

1. We’re good at. You might have heard “these areas” referred to as your area(s) of genius or unique value propositions or those things you excel in. They are the areas where you stand out, stand apart from the rest, and pretty well dominate in. And you’re, more than likely, seen as the go-to person for them and asked to do them for others who are not as skilled in those areas as you may be.
2. We enjoy doing. These are those things that we’re passionate about and that we’ll put our all into because we get sheer pleasure out of doing them (even if no one recognizes us for doing them). And guess what? Because you have an innate desire to do these things, you’re, quite possibly, exuding oodles of unique value proposition-like confidence while doing them and enjoying them. Here’s a WIN-WIN situation all the way around.
3. Benefit others. Well, if you want others to be attracted to those things you’re good at and those things you enjoy doing, you’d better make sure you utilize the “Big 2” to reach people where they’re at and with what they need. And if you do that, then I do believe you now have the BIG 3 working for you.

The “Big 3” will be meshed together and used in our method for directing those areas we’ll focus on throughout this year — and as a result, simplify life.

Oh, and here’s where I’m going to bring some clarity into the discussion as far as what we did last week and how that carries over to this week. For purposes of our discussions in this work-life balance journey, I’m going to keep them centered on the creative entrepreneurial part of our lives.

I find it somewhat exhausting to think of all the discussion points that can result from applying simplification methods to the personal aspects of our lives, so I’ll just keep it simple and discuss how to apply them on the professional side of things. But just know that I want you to use this work-life balance journey we’re on to get your life right in ALL areas of your life.

PLEASE NOTE: You should STILL be working on identifying those broad “life” categories you want to focus on this year, which was step 1 mentioned from last week. (Life categories include all of life: both the professional as well as the personal side.) And even though we won’t delve into personal life areas such as health, family/relationships, spirituality, etc., you should still be listing out the goals you want to accomplish under each of your broad life categories you’ve identified, which was step 2 from last week’s assignment.

And now, I’ve just introduced you to the BIG 3 which should help bring clarity to these first two steps by assisting you in your efforts to focus on the life categories and the goals within them that will be responsible for creating life improvements for the better. So your assignment for this go-around is to continue to work on steps 1 and 2, keeping the Big 3 in mind.

I’m going to keep it short and sweet today, because I think I’ve given you plenty of food for thought to ponder over until next week, and I want to make sure that we work together on this without creating any OVERWHELM, if you know what I mean.

After all, I’m all about keeping it simple these days. So, we’ll end here, pick things up next Tuesday, and add a little more to the work-life balance journeying. I’ve come to recognize that carefully thought-out, deliberate movements that are incremental, doable, and consistently-applied tend to lead to progressive results and the ultimate arrival at goal destination spots.

AND WE’RE OFF TO A GREAT START!