Balancing Ambition and Well-being: Insights from a Life and Clarity Coach

You are a leader. You want to be successful in your career. 

And you want to have a great personal life as well. 

However, finding a balance between personal and professional Life takes work.

Relentless pursuit of goals and ambition can leave you burnt out. You might be driven, successful, and yet unhappy in life.

But there are ways you can achieve both personal and professional well-being. 

I have been in the same place. And as a life and clarity coach, I was able to help several leaders with work-life harmony. 

I am sharing simple yet powerful insights to find the right balance.

First Step: Redefine Success

Success isn’t just about setting goals and achieving them. Success is not about living up to the standards of society. 

It’s about finding your values and creating your own success story.

Must read: Clarity Coaching: How it Helps with Authentic Living

To some of you, it may mean more time, and to many, success can be more money and fame.

Here are simple steps to redefine success.

Align Success with your values

Ask yourself these questions:

• What are my top three career goals? 
• What are my top three personal goals?  
• How do I want to feel every day?

These questions would be your guiding light and will help you redefine success. 

Revisit Your Achievements

Look at your past accomplishments:

• What made you happy?
• What brings you the most satisfaction?
• What’s your drive? Is it external validation or internal fulfillment? 

Answering these questions will give you a deeper understanding of your inner drive.

Create a Realistic Personal Growth Plan

Whenever you achieve a goal, you would want to set higher goals. 

Success is not a destination. It’s a journey. 

Set goals that align with your personal development, as well as, materialist goals. This means learning a new language, pursuing a hobby, getting healthier, helping a cause, or giving back to society or your community.

Celebrate your wins

We often wait to celebrate till the end of the war. 

• Take time to celebrate small battles as well.  Recognize and celebrate your daily victories, big or small.
• Set yourself goals for the day, achieve them, and celebrate them. 
• Be a winner every day. The way you live one day is the way you will live your entire life.

You may read: 7 Ways to make more time for yourself when your routine is packed

Practice Living in the Present

“I’ve been trying to live my life so that in the hour of my death I would rather feel joy, than fear.”  Witold Pilecki, Celebrated War Hero

The best way to live life is to enjoy the present moment. 

We dwell on our past and try to analyze what we could have done better.

We think about the future and how to achieve goals or get better.

But this is the moment. Learn to live in the present. 

Second Step: Recharge yourself

It’s important to recharge ourselves. By taking good care of your physical and mental well-being, you’ll have the energy and focus to tackle your ambitious goals.

Here are simple steps to Recharge your batteries:

• Schedule time in your daily calendar to recharge yourself. Morning meditation, evening walk in the park, spending time with your kids or loved ones, or your “me time”, find what recharges you and make sure you do it.
• Turn off your digital life. Laptop, mobile, social media all of this drains you. Mentally, physically, and emotionally. They rob you of energy. Set clear boundaries around screen time.
• Move Your Body. Make time to exercise. Exercise has been scientifically proven to boost your mood and energy levels.
• Target 7-8 hours of quality sleep every night. 
• Build your social life. We are social beings and thrive in communities. Look for like-minded people.

Final Step – Set Clear Boundaries

Boundaries help you create separation between work and personal life. It helps avoid burnout.

Here is how you can set clear boundaries:

1. Take some time to reflect on what drains your energy. Also, find out what makes you recharge. This will help you understand where to set boundaries.

2. Practice Saying No. Requests/demands that don’t align with your vision or stretch your schedule can be declined.

An easy way to decline is a simple “No, I am too occupied right now.”

3. Learn to clearly communicate. Don’t expect people to read your mind. It is your responsibility to communicate clearly about your needs.

Similarly, if you don’t understand something, Ask clear questions. Clear communication also                  helps in setting clear boundaries.

4. Be flexible with your routine. There will be times when you have to deal with unplanned situations. This is Life and happens with everyone. Don’t feel stressed with these situations. Once you have dealt with the unplanned situation you can go back to your routine. 

Balancing Ambitions and well-being can be challenging. But, it is doable. It is possible. We all are a work in progress. Remember that. 

Feel free to ask me any questions or ask for a call if you need any help with balancing your ambition and well-being.

See you soon with another blog!

Dolveen

Life and Clarity Coach

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