Much is being written, spoken of, and talked about relative to achieving “balance” in our lives!

When I was a young adult - raising children, going to college, and caring for a terminally ill spouse; I don’t remember anyone speaking about finding a balance in my life. There were just certain things that needed to be taken care of and I never gave a thought to whether I was more focused on one aspect of life or not.

Scientific research has made great strides since those years, and we hear more and more about the importance of achieving a balance among all the areas of life. Thoughtful experts have devised ways to look at life by dividing ‘it’ or ‘us’ into sections or categories that can be used to discover, rank and evaluate whether we are or are not living a ‘balanced’ life!

As I look at ‘it’ - life - and the aspects of ‘us’, I see the following seven areas that we need to focus on if we are to achieve balance. Those areas are:

*Physical - our physical well being or lack thereof,

*Social/Leisure- are we involved with others or do we tend to be a ‘lone ranger’, do we take time for ourselves and those who are important to us, do we have a hobby or hobbies in which we regularly engage,

*Career - our work life, our profession or business,

*Family - our spouse, children, grandchildren and extended family,

*Financial - how we manage the monetary resources we have,

*Mental-Emotional - our ‘thought’ and ‘feeling’ life, our inner life, our perspective from inside/out,

*Spiritual - our view of that which is bigger than we are, that which ‘knocks at the door’ of our inner being.

Are these areas of life meaningful for just those of us who’ve entered the 2nd half of the journey?

No, but we tend to become more interested in, focused on and aware of the areas of life once we’ve “hit” mid-life and moved into a different thought sphere.

As we move through the 2nd half of our life journey, I believe it becomes even more important to take a focused look at how life is going for us. If we want to live a long, full, rich life - we need to pay attention to who we are and where we are in each of the different, but related areas of life.

Regardless of where we find ourselves TODAY, we can make changes that will ultimately affect us over the years. We can reverse the things that we discover are ‘out of whack’. And we can do so before it’s too late to effect the positive change we seek.