Having taken a fantastic hiking trip up to Snowdonia in North Wales a few weeks ago I thought I’d share with you something that’s absolutely essential to the successful running of my life and business.

For many people, they work hard at the coalface in order to get away from it all. Whether that’s the annual family holiday to sun and sand or a caravan trip for the weekend, in our British culture we seem to constantly strive to ‘get away’.

Is it healthy, though?

Is the need to get away from work, home life, daily pressures and stress the way we really want to lead our lives either in business or personally? To let our unstructured chaos press against us until the pressure amounts to stress, only to keep going knowing in a month or so that ‘well needed’ trip away will let you run away from it all, take a breather and then return to repeat the process all over again?

To let our unstructured chaos press against us until the pressure amounts to stress, only to keep going knowing in a month or so that ‘well needed’ trip away will let you run away from it all, take a breather and then return to repeat the process all over again?

Is that not madness?

How about being in such control of your life that there is no need to ‘get away’, that your levels of enthusiasm, energy, drive, motivation and attitude are matched closely with one critical aspect we all at some point fail to achieve;

Balance

In order for me to maintain a level of success in life (I am not talking about money or physical health here) with the right attitude and mindset, that allows me to manage the pressures of clients, projects, being a single parent and life in general, I have learnt to apply huge amounts of discipline and structure into my life. This ensures I get what I need to thrive – and equally turns pressure into a joyful experience.

So How Do I Keep Balance In My Life?

The first thing I ask myself regularly is one simple question to keep me on track;

Am I giving myself what I need in life?

Firstly, the majority of people don’t really understand what it is they need to be giving themselves in the first place to thrive. I must admit, it has taken me years to discover what I need to be the best at, well, being me.

Here’s my list of things I have to do in order to give myself what I need;

• Time with my daughter – Reminds me of the real reason I do what I do
• Reading - To learn, grow and gain knowledge
• Exercise – Physically fit, mentally fit
• Outdoors & Hiking – Space to contemplate and connect with my surroundings
• Meditation – Essential for a balanced mindset
• Sleep - The harder one for me to balance sometimes with a small child

One of the most important on my list is the outdoors and hiking. However, as a full-time single parent, hiking trips are only brief for a night or two at the most but are always packed with adventure, fresh air, and spectacular views.

This gives me a rewarding sense of contentment and being spontaneous. The purpose here, however, is not to escape or ‘get away’ - in fact, it is the polar opposite. These trips are a way to constructively and positively contribute to the existence and flow of my life in a way that allows personal growth.

For if I am growing, all areas of my life will grow in equal measure, including my business. Meaning I return on a Monday morning with excitement and eagerness to move ever forward.

I can certainly say when on top of a mountain miles from anyone your perception changes and things you may not have been aware of before suddenly become clearer to you. This is essential in my decision-making processes.

The point of these trips are incredibly important to not only my own personal balance - mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually, but also the balance and approach needed in business.

Why Does This Matter?

See a good few years ago I had absolutely no balance or consistency in my life. Constantly working ridiculous hours while building up my work on a freelance basis that would become Venture Works you see today and working full time as a consultant with Welsh Government.

I was adamant that if I was not working crazy hard, putting in god knows how many hours a week that my dreams and aspirations in life would not happen.

I was very wrong.

The issue is we overstretch our performance, thinking we can achieve a lot more in a short space of time than we actually can and then combine this with unrealistic short-term planning (by short-term I mean up to 12 months).

When you then add this to a non-balanced approach, where you end up constantly tired or struggling to focus, you inevitably become responsible for creating the one thing we try to avoid at all costs;

FAILURE

Until I realised this and made an active and conscious change to re-programme the habits and approaches in my life I always experienced some kind of failure or setback in everything I was doing, personally and professionally. Sounding familiar at some point of your life?

Fast forward a few years and things are very different; my productivity and efficiency are now at incredible levels and I work less than half the weekly hours I was back then. To top this off, the business is growing faster than even before.

So How Can You Create This Balance?

Firstly, ask yourself some of these questions honestly;

Do you feel like you are content in what you are doing?
Does pressure regularly amount to stress?
Do you look at negatives and barriers personally and in your business?

If you have answered yes to any of these, then you’re not operating with the balance that you need in your life to thrive. The worst part is your probably not even aware of how incredible your life could be when you strike balance.

The next question I ask a lot of my coaching clients is this;

Does it hurt enough to change?

This important statement is there to determine what your commitment is to the challenges you’ll have to overcome to find balance. Many people say at face value, even to themselves, they would love balance, a more fulfilled life, personal growth and a growing business but when it truly comes down to it they fail.

Why? .... Discipline

Lack of discipline creates non-action that leads to a pull back to old habits and ways that are pre-programmed to operate automatically without you even knowing it.

So we often end up being pulled back to our comfort zone after starting to make any changes in our life. The natural pull back to this comfort zone is more often than not far stronger than the continued desire and motivation to change.

So work out what you need to do in your life to create balance, execute discipline on a continuous basis, turn repetitive action into new habits and how your life changes.