High achieving people (which is probably you if you are an athlete) often purposely have to live their lives out of balance at times, and that’s ok!!!
Social media posts about balance can make us feel like we are doing something wrong. It’s easy to get caught up in the picture-perfect facade of social media, and think that there is something wrong with you because your life is nowhere near picture-perfect.
A lot of us have goals (either professionally or athletically) that other people don’t, and won’t, understand. They might think you are obsessed or working too hard. For the most part, we can ignore other people’s opinions especially if they are not a significant player in our life, but sometimes, problems arise when it’s someone close to us that is feeling slighted or off put by our dedication.
We’ve all been there, a loved one expresses concern about the long hours you are spending in the gym (or at the office). Sometimes we can just brush off that concern, but maybe other times, if this person is a significant other, it can be important to discuss their concern to find out if they are jealous, feeling neglected, or if there really is a cause for concern in terms of your health.
- Ask yourself: Who is this person in your life? Should you ignore them or have a discussion with them?
- Discuss your goals and what their concern is
- Ask for their support even if they don’t “get it”
- Make sure you aren’t harming them in any way
- Take into account what their concern is and make sure that you aren’t harming yourself
- If your hard work is damaging your relationship with them, and it’s a relationship worth keeping intact (let’s be real, they aren’t ALL), then communication and understanding on both sides, is going to be important.
Listing out priorities.
It’s essential to know where the line is when you are trying to achieve big things. If you don’t know where your priorities are, then you won’t know where to draw the line.
- Take into consideration the following:
- Know what you are willing to sacrifice for your goals and what you aren’t
- Make sure everything you do is in accordance with those
- Don’t forget self care!!
For me (Kristin) this means that when I’m in meet prep or working hard towards a deadline, I know the things I’m not willing to sacrifice are my work, my training, my sleep, my nutrition, and my spouse. But I am willing to sacrifice my social life for a few months, unnecessary travel, and keeping up with all but the most basic house cleaning (hey, something has to give!).
There needs to be an end date.
This is key. This will prevent burn-out. You can certainly push yourself for an extended period of time, but you cannot continue doing it forever. It’s easy to think that a lot of the people you look up to are always pushing the limit, always killing it, and always going the extra mile…because that’s the message they put out on their social media. But in reality, no one can keep that up for forever. They too need to step back once in a while, and that is why having an end date is so very important.
Once you reach the end of your project, have your big meet, or finish your semester in school, take a week or two to catch up on the things you let slip. Clean your house, meet up with friends, go on a date with your significant other, and spend some time just relaxing. Taking some time to re-balance yourself is so very important and critical if want to continue to strive for big things in your future.
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