You are incredibly successful in your career. You’ve risen to the top of your field or you’re well on your way there. Things couldn’t be better at work.
However, your personal life is suffering. You are not spending enough time with your loved ones or doing any self-care. You have no room for hobbies or fun activities. You’re unable to look at your accomplishments outside of your career.
According to Empowerment Speaker, Personal Development/Life Coach and Life Strategist Sheri Riley, this is not healthy. We need to live more fully, and quit spending 100% of our time on 10% of who we are. Our careers should be a small part of our lives, but instead, they are hogging the spotlight.
Do you find that you can’t concentrate on anything other than your career? Do you think it’s taking up too much of your time?
Here are a few ways to determine whether or not you need to shift your focus.
1. You can’t move on from your failures
Many people will fixate on how they messed up instead of being proud of their numerous accomplishments.
“We allow one negative situation to weigh heavily on us, crushing us beneath it, and ignore the ninety-nine great situations that should be buoying our strength and lightening our load,” says Riley. “So often we don’t take ownership of choices that bring positive value and forward movement.”
For example, Riley writes that she will take ownership of a financial misstep but will not take ownership of the fact that she’s created a strong family.
Doting on negative situations and career failures is a waste of time. Instead, look at your wins. “Once you choose to acknowledge the positive in every situation, you take ownership of YOU and what you bring to the table,” says Riley. “You become more confident in your decisions.”
Are you busy all the time, but not feeling satisfied with how you spend your days? It doesn’t have be that way. You can integrate professional success with whole-life success. Learn more.
2. You are afraid to start new things
Fear can hold a lot of us back. It can stop us from taking major steps in our lives like moving to a new city, starting a relationship, switching careers, buying a house and having kids. But it also has the power to seep into smaller aspects of our lives.
Riley was fearful to start a new project because she was scared about what would go wrong three, six or nine months into it. She found herself wasting time and distracting herself with the “what ifs.”
Then, Riley says, she “finally made the decision not to be concerned with anything other than making the commitment to get started. I gave my all and executed the first step with excellence. Each additional step mirrored my first step – guiding me to success.”
Instead of procrastinating and thinking about what can go wrong, it’s better to spend your time actually making moves. First, set your goals, then make your commitment and focus on the one or two next best steps.
“When I started the project, I knew this was not the most efficient way to launch,” Riley says. “However, waiting until it was ‘most efficient’ would have given my fears the inch they needed to convince me not to move forward. Fear was trying to paralyze me.”
3. You seek outside validation
People chase after things like big careers, large houses, the perfect spouses, lots of power and influence and approval from their family and friends. They believe it will help them achieve freedom, security and inner peace.
However, if you keep trying to seek peace from outside sources, you’re going to perpetually be turning your wheels and wasting your time, according to Riley. “I know so many highly accomplished people who are smiling and saying everything is alright,’ yet dying and crying on the inside,” she writes. “We’ve got it backwards…We are chasing what we hope will bring us inner peace instead of pursuing real peace of mind, body and soul, and then receiving the power and clarity that leads us to REAL freedom, financial security, love, influence and significance.”
When you have inner peace, you don’t need the external things in life to give you that satisfaction. All you need is yourself. You are going to be more creative, increasingly inspired, have the ability to cut through the noise, boost your productivity, gain clarity and experience success in all aspects of your life – not just that 10%.
Living every moment to the fullest
We have a limited amount of time on earth to be fulfilled personally and professionally. If you’re not spending your time wisely, you need to take the reigns and get your life back on track. By following Sheri Riley’s advice, you can feel empowered to do just that.
Are you busy all the time, but not feeling satisfied with how you spend your days? It doesn’t have be that way. You can integrate professional success with whole-life success. Learn more.
