Finding Balance...(in every aspect)

Society says that your early twenties especially the age of 21 is the "best time of your life." If you ask me, I believe that it is the most difficult time period.

As a college student myself, often and I mean...VERY OFTEN I find myself struggling to manage every category of my life. Here are the categories:

- School Life

- Work Life

- Social Life (family, friends, significant other)

- Personal Life (health goals, hobbies, sanity)

And the BEST ONE yet (and I say this with a very strong amount of exhaust and sarcasm)

- Planning and getting in alignment for your Future Life.

Sound about right to anyone?

We struggle because we are no longer considered teenagers, but we are fairly fresh out of high school. We struggle because we are considered adults, but we are what I like to call, "fetus adults" who are freshly discovering and learning more about the real world each and every day. I may not know everyone's lifestyle, experiences, and or overall journey, but we all have some sort of responsibilities to take care of and obtain whether that be paying bills, contributing to the household, or living up to our parent's expectations as well as sharing the same goal of Everlasting Happiness and Success.

Here are some healthy, helpful TIPS that one can adopt to their lifestyle to make their goal to everlasting happiness and success just a little bit easier:

TIPS

TIP 1: GET YOURSELF A PLANNER *helps to balance all categories*

I cannot stress enough how extremely beneficial it is to keep up with a planner. In a planner you can hold all of your to do lists, tasks, and goals by simply writing them down in a very well organized manner. This helps keep you more on track and on top of things because you can visually see all of your plans instead of constantly having to think about the next thing you have to tackle in your head. Along with a planner I suggest investing in some good highlighters and pens to color coordinate all of your tasks and ideas. To get creative you could also try investing in other forms of stationary such as sticky notes, stickers, paper clips, stamps, etc to make things more fun.

TIP 2: ORGANIZE YOUR TASKS *helps to balance school/work life*

Say you have a long To-Do List with many different things that you need to get done for the day or even a full week. Take your list and go over all of the things that you decide to write down. Scout for things that are not necessary enough to be on there. Make this judgment based on the amount of time it will take to complete it. If you could get this task done in approximately 10-15 minutes (if you really concentrated or tried) then eliminate this task off of your list. The purpose of that is to create less work for yourself to do as well as giving yourself a chance to save your energy for the more heftier or important tasks that may require more brain power, strength, and attention. If you believe that all of those things on that list of yours deserves to be there, then wisely organize each task accordingly while keeping in mind of their importance and time span. Always start with the task that you dread the most and work your way to the easiest (depending on what it is). You will thank yourself later.

TIP 3: BE GENEROUS WITH YOUR PRIORITIES *helps balance social/personal life with school/work life*

This tip is a personal preference for me, because I truly value quality time with my loved ones and strongly believe in self care. Everyone has their own opinion about what a "Priority" is.

A priority is simply a personal preference because everyone has different goals. If you are a hardworking college student your goal is get a degree. How does a college student get a degree? They prioritize studying to get good grades. If you are a gym rat your goal is to develop physical changes to your body. How does a gym rat get a nice physique and a healthy body? They prioritize going to the gym and getting in their routined workouts. If you are a business man/woman your goal is to make money. How does a business man/woman make money? They work and work and work really hard. The list goes on with a bunch of different scenarios. Because we are talking about finding balance in every category of your life, one must analyze what all of their priorities are and reflect on them from time to time for whether certain priorities are interfering with other lifestyle categories. What I mean by "Being Generous" is trying to find the importance of things in the spare of the moment and cutting yourself and the people around you a break instead of solely focusing on prime concerns. For example, if you have a lot of homework to do, take time to focus on your studies but don't put off going on a lunch date with your mom if she asks to bond for the weekend. If you have a set schedule for your gym time, work around your availability or cut yourself some slack for being a hard grinder throughout the week. If you spend most of your days in the office, set aside some time for the sake of spending quality time with your family or by soaking up the nature around you. By no means am I suggesting one should care less about primary concerns or slack off. Life is just too short and sometimes the perfect solution to living a good life is to give a little more extra attention to making everlasting memories with the people you love and being kind to yourself.

TIP 4: ELIMINATE *helps to balance all categories*

Make a list of things that make you feel shitty/unbalanced and then slowly eliminate them from your lifestyle. This includes any bad habits. Bad habits however don't just go away overnight and it is easier to tell yourself not to do something anymore rather than actually discipling yourself to make that action go away. Keep in mind that nobody is perfect and take things day by day. With just a little practice of elimination everyday with a set good intention, progress will eventually be made. Eliminating also includes removing any tasks that make you feel drained or doing unnecessary things that you feel are not worth your time. There are 24 hours in a day and on a really good one we are lucky to be awake for at least 12. You can do so many things in this given period of time, but make sure you are actually doing things that are actually worth it that will benefit not only you, but to those around you so that you can make a meaningful contribution to society. If you are stuck doing something that you are required to do for a primary purpose (related to your career path or job) just take a breathe, give yourself a few minutes to slow down and write at least 5 things you are grateful for because counting ones blessings instead of ones miseries is much better for the soul regardless of what circumstance you are in.

TIP 5: DO SOMETHING FOR YOUR SOUL *helps to balance all categories*

We all spend so much time mentally trapping ourselves in the things we need to get done. No matter what you are stressing about today or going to be stressing about tomorrow, spend at least 1 hour, JUST 1 HOUR doing something good for yourself. Personally I would meditate, write in my journal, listen to motivational podcast, or sit at a café by the beach because it makes me feel calm, recollected, and connected to my higher self. Whatever it is that you decide to do, I hope it brings you those same feelings, peace, or anything more!

And lastly most certainly not least...

TIP 6: LEARN HOW TO SAY, "NO." *helps to balance all categories + future life*

As people, we are all naturally social beings. We love to get involved with others because we naturally yearn to connect. As young people, we love to go out because we love adventures, trying new things, and want to grasp on to every little thing that life has to offer and there is nothing wrong with that. BUT if you are someone who is out there chasing their bag, then you must discipline yourself to remain focused and clear for whatever it is that you are trying to accomplish [insert your goal]. Learn how to create and set up boundaries for yourself. Use boundaries to recollect yourself for the intentions of reflecting, planning and conquering. The purpose of this is to help yourself manifest for greater things that are in the works of coming your way and it can be very difficult if you are always saying yes to your friends to grab a drink at the beach bars, try out that restaurant or see the newest movie that just came out. As one of my favorite author's Lori Harder said, "No is a complete sentence. Never apologize afterward, this gives them space to convince you and it says to yourself that you should feel bad about your decision. If it's not something that gets me excited its simply not meant for me and its a distraction. Not all good things are good for you, and if it doesn't give you energy or align with your 1-5 year vision then its a NO." Have reasonable boundaries though. I'm not saying cut everyone and everything out of your social life. Live freely, have fun and ride the wave but know how to snap back and stand tall when you need to. Also pay attention to time thieves and be wise with who your surround yourself and spend your time with. Surround yourself with people who respect your boundaries and people who will help you grow.