Over several months we worked on a program to recreate balance in her life. By time we were a month or two into it, she had fallen back in love with her job, and her husband and she told me she finally knew who she was and what she wanted from her life.

The following is backbone of what Barbara and I worked on: 5 strategies to bring balance into your life. I’d invite you to play with them, perhaps take them on as homework and see if they bring you results.

1. You are number one. Contrary to what you’re taught you have to take care of yourself first. You know when you are on a plane and flight attendant gives you briefing about what to do if oxygen is needed? You must put mask on YOURSELF first before assisting others. What good can you be to anyone if you are in terrible shape yourself? So, first order of business in creating balance is SELF CARE. Do you eat well, do you exercise regularly, and do you take vacations?

2. Get to know yourself. Answer questions: Who am I? And what are my values and priorities? A good way to engage with these questions is through journaling. Get a special journal and begin a relationship with yourself. Light a candle; spend 5 minutes a day writing for you.

3. What are you currently tolerating? What sucks your energy and drains you? What are annoying things that if you eliminated them would free up more time? It can be anything from a squeaky door that bothers you to not having office equipment working well to relationships that are draining or toxic. Make a list of these things and begin to handle them. Get them off your plate.

4. Develop a really good support system. Let’s face it we all need support and sometimes it’s hard to ask for help. Often times difference between getting successful results or not depends on how well supported you are.

5. Nurture your spirit and your dreams. What lights you up? Is it nature, culture, great conversations with friends, your relationship to a higher power? Consider spending regular time every week with these things. This is time that refills well, so to speak. By paying attention to what inspires you, you begin to build a reserve of energy to draw from when you are stressed.

Play with these 5 strategies (even if you only can manage one or two, you will receive benefit) and see what starts to happen…

Creating work/life balance takes courage, commitment, willingness and support. When you incorporate these structures and strategies into your life you will get results.

Aren’t YOU worth it?

It’s YOUR life…imagine possibilities!

Patience is particularly necessary when you are working with other people to accomplish something, which is becoming more norm all time. In fact we never really accomplish something alone. It takes patience to convince others, to coordinate efforts, to work out politics, to forge a team. If you lack Emotional Intelligence, and therefore let your emotions get better of you, you will give in to frustration and obstacles. In order to have patience, you must be able to understand and manage your own emotions and those of others, because in every task there are setbacks and challenges, and people can become discouraged.

Patience, pazienza, Geduld, paciencia, la patience … in today’s multicultural world, we are going to need more and more.

“Ask experienced, not learned,” say Arabs, because “wit” Shakespeare talks about comes with diligence of time and patience, not just book learning. There are things in every field and every endeavor we can only learn through patience of time.

You can make haste in beginning what you want to accomplish. It is said that famous French Marshall Lyautey once asked his gardener to plant a tree. The gardener complained it was a slow-growing tree that wouldn’t reach maturity for 100 years. The Marshall allegedly replied, “In that case, there is no time to lose. Plant it this afternoon!”

Whatever you’ve set out to accomplish, don’t waste any time beginning. But once you have started, remember that it will take patience, which requires “wit” and not “witchcraft.” Keep your eye on goal, keep your head about you, manage your emotions, and be willing to persevere.