Keep Your Bubble Centered

Product Description

Keep Your Bubble Centered: How to Achieve Personal Balance

Excerpt:

People are searching for balance. More than marketing their products and services, managing fleeting resources, or even understanding diversity, the quest to achieve balance is a priority of today’s executive.

What is balance?   Balance is the state of equilibrium between preferred activities and required activities. One vital, the other essential; but both are necessary to have a life that is complete and fulfilling.

Because individuals differ, it is hard to prescribe a formula for balance, or even describe what a balanced life should look like.  In fact, the definition of balance is more discernible when balance is not present.   Many people notice a need for balance on the heels of a personal crisis: untimely illness; financial ruin; broken personal relationships. Others recognize a need for balance when they are under stress: conflicting demands, competing interests, the feeling of going nowhere fast. Hence, the correlation between balance and stress.  I believe there is an inverse relationship between balance and stress.

The more balance – - – the less stress

The more stress – - – probably the less balance.

Then why am I talking to you about balance … and not stress?  Because there are no long-term, positive effects of stress management.  Books have been written and read, methods have been prescribed and tried, but unless problems are addressed from the standpoint of balance, they will not be resolved.  There is no standard formula for exercise, work, and play that will solve the balance equation.

One of the most fulfilled individuals I know enjoys research and writes papers for fun.  For John, this is “play,” but most others would consider this to be “WORK!”  Conversely, one young woman I met was a fitness enthusiast.  She exercised relentlessly. During her breaks at work, she could be found doing sit-ups in the hallway!  Soon, she quit the job she had been professionally trained to do and took a job at a fitness center, making a considerable amount less money before she was financially able to live with the adjustment. This decision upset the balance equation for Janice, her finances, and ultimately, her lifestyle.  There is nothing wrong with a career change; even one that yields less money, however, for Janice, the pursuit of preferred activities jeopardized the required activity needed to secure her financial needs and lifestyle. Balance is a unique formula. It must be tailored for each individual.

“Keeping Your Bubble Centered!”  is not solely about time management, personal effectiveness, or even planning.  You probably have adopted a method that you are comfortable with already.  Many of you have even taught the courses!  Nor is this another stress management program for reasons discussed before.  “Keeping Your Bubble Centered!”  puts you at the craftsman level.  It encourages you to integrate all the systems you have studied before and bring them to bear as resources toward achieving personal fulfillment.  Consider each of these focus areas – time management, personal effectiveness, planning, stress management, and wellness – as tools.  “Keeping Your Bubble Centered!” will give you a framework in which to employ the tools.  You will be able to use these tools center your “bubble” and achieve personal balance.

The forms presented in “Keeping Your Bubble Centered!”  won’t necessarily supplant the ones you currently use.  However, they will cause you to think differently about the things that you put on your daily list of “TO-DO’S.”  The method presented (LIST) is one that will complement any time management system.  The two most useful features of the LIST method are  1) scheduling both required and preferred activities and 2) the “Think About It” step.  During this step, you will be encouraged to Think about the events that have occurred in your day.    You will begin journaling  in a targeted way and will thereby begin to gain the greatest values toward achieving personal balance.  As you reflect upon the day’s events, what was rewarding, touching, as well as frustrating, and insufficient, you will come upon information that will aid you in centering your “bubble” and keeping it centered.

Once you become familiar with the LIST method, you will probably internalize the first three steps, listing, identifying, and scheduling both preferred and required activities.  However, you should still find it useful to follow the “Think About It” guide as a part of your daily routine.

In summary, balance is a relationship between preferred and required activities that needs constant reflection and adjustment.  Balance is governed by certain principles that hold true and when achieved,  can transform your flurry of activities into a life that is rewarding, fulfilling and complete.  This book will help you to discover those principles so that you too, may enjoy the balance you deserve.

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