Finding Balance in Life – Or At Least Not Falling Off the Beam

There are wonderful blog posts out there about finding (and keeping) balance in your life. To exercise is a way to get in good health. Well, if you’re considering noom vs weight watchers for your diet and exercise goals, this is what you need to know. Blogs about attending to all the different parts of you; about not spending too much time at work at the expense of your family; about fulfilling your God-given role.

This isn’t one of them.

Me? I need lessons from blogs like those at the best of times.  And considering the last month or two, I feel like I should be changing the header of this blog from Reading, Writing & Real Life to How Many Balls Can I Keep in the Air at One Time?  Or something about pressure-cookers.  Or steam rollers.

This semester has turned out to be really hard, partly because my classes require a lot of reading, and partly because life keeps pulling in more balls to juggle.  Some of the juggling balls come with joy, like babysitting my new grandbaby or having a long visit from a friend, but they do add distraction and pressure.

Add being sick for a week and then trying to catch up on everything, and … yeah, you get the idea.

On top of that, the calendar says it’s time for a new Round of Words in 80 Days (aka ROW80), complete with a new set of goals.  Do I try this again, or do I just keep muddling through?  I’m not trying to write a set number of words/hours per day/week, but ROW80 is about more than that, and I like giving (and getting) encouragement.  Plus, while I had a few general writing goals, most of them related to keeping my head above water.  And if you don’t keep on keeping your head above water, well, you drown.  Not good.

So, yeah, here I am again, trying to stay focused and keep my life from exploding sort of balanced without Bela Karolyi to coach me.  Not easy (neither is mixing up all these metaphors!), but here’s what I’m working on:

1.  Keep up with my school work:  Shakespeare, Folklore, and Writing Creative Non-Fiction.  Ideally, get it done during the day so I can relax in the evening and actually see Hubby O’Mine once in a while.

2.  Finish edits on my middle-grade novel, Through the Shimmer of Time, and send the requested partial to the agent.  (No, I didn’t pitch it to him unfinished – these edits are to address a problem he saw.)  If I actually accomplish this before the semester is over, Round 4 will be a super-success!

3.  Two blog posts a week.  Sometimes that’s easy, sometimes not.  And I may do it by including some great guest posts from my wonderful WANA tribe, but I’ll let those count, too.

4.  Get back on track with healthy eating – generally cutting out sugar and white stuff, and loading up on veggies.  (Loading up on fruit is already easy-peasy.) August McLaughlin’s blog and Ginger Calem’s Writer’s Butt posts help here.

5.  Begin each weekday with 5 minutes on the elliptical.  STOP LAUGHING!  I’m not after a lot of cardio here, I’m after habits!

6.  Stretch hips and legs daily, plus some PT exercises.  If my back has problems, I can’t do much computer work, and then where would I be?

So that’s it.  Pretty simple, huh?  Right.  If you say so.

But if you do say so, then please, share with us:  how do you keep the many areas of your life in balance, especially when some of them are deadline-driven?  What do you give up?  How do you stay focused?

(PS:  If you liked this, click the FaceBook LIKE button, or send a tweet, or share it some other way!)