Chancellor Garrett discussed a wide range of themes and stories during her time in class. One point she hit on was the difficult but important practice of balance in life when pursuing things we are passionate about while also maintaining our relationships. How do you approach trying to find balance in your own life? How can balance make you a better leader?
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Balance is one of the most important parts of being successful and pursuing your dreams and passions. For one, it is important to balance work and life because if you spend all of your time working and don’t have free time to do things you love, you will end up miserable. But, I think the most important thing is balancing relationships. I believe that the key to being successful is having a support system. Surrounding myself with people who are going to support me and build me up is really important to me. I always make sure to make time for the people I love. One of the best ways to grow as a person and a leader is to surround yourself with people who will be there for you and help you grow. That is why I believe it is so important to make sure to balance your work and passions with your relationships. That is key to becoming a better leader.
Balance is something I’ve always struggled with in my life. I tend to put all my time and effort into one aspect of my life (typically the one I enjoy the most) and neglect the others. Something that helps me balance my responsibilities is a google document that I update daily and gradually check off my tasks as I complete them. Additionally, as the external director of BronchoThon, many of my responsibilities pertain to interpersonal communication, meaning I have an advantage in that I can build relationships while accomplishing my goals. Chancellor Garrett talked about what I will call “balance forgiveness,” which essentially means you can only reasonably dedicate yourself to some of your tasks and can’t beat yourself up when you don’t accomplish them all. In this regard, leaders can utilize this strategy to remove the guilt or stress that stems from growing responsibilities and instead focus on completing what they are able to accomplish. I believe these concepts of self-awareness and realistic goals will make me a better leader.
I have always struggled with a good work/life ratio as I have always kept myself busy with schoolwork and any other activities I participated in. I found it difficult to maintain my work while still making time for the ones that I loved but a way that I combatted this was making schedules that wrote out the most efficient work schedule to keep time for things I enjoy outside of it. It is mainly about time management but it is also about enjoying the little things with the people you love and sometimes even being able to say no to extra work or taking on extra projects. You have to know your limit to not burn yourself out trying to maintain both lifestyles. Time management like this can help you be an efficient leader and know how to value your relationships with both work and your home life.
I try to find balance in my own life by trying to not focus too much on one area of my life. I’ve been struggling to find a good work/school/life balance recently and it’s caused my school life to start to slip. Balance makes you a better leader because it takes focus and preservation. It makes you constantly struggle to better yourself. A good leader is able to have multiple irons in the fire and still be able to function.
Allison mentioned that success begins in college. She talked about getting involved with the university to get first leadership experience. She also talked about working off campus to enhance the resume. In order to be successful at work, personal development begins in college. Part of leadership is knowing your work environment and being responsive to your employees.
Finding balance can be very difficult as someone that always feels like they’re missing something or feels like they always need to be doing something. I have gotten much better at being able to tell when I need to stop and take a break. Something I try to do once a week is take a few hours to watch a show or journal about what’s going in my life at the moment. It helps me feel like I’m getting my thoughts out and free from my mind. Overall, I find balance by trying to take a day off during the week to do what I actually want to do rather than what I feel I need to. Sometimes I can’t get a whole day to myself but I take the time I can get to do a little self care.
Finding balance as a college student has proven to be a struggle for many people. Having a job, classes, and attempting to have a social life or practice hobbies can be very stressful and leave little time for relaxation or recovery. One way I have been able to find balance during this busy time is by focusing on my time management skills and prioritizing the important things first. Creating an agenda every week and writing out my plans and obligations for each day has helped me find time in my schedule for social events and a decent amount of sleep every night. The ability to find balance is an important quality in leaders, it proves that one has the intellect to see a reason for productivity. Leaders understand that finding time for all of the important things in life is crucial for success.
My approach to finding balance in my life changes based on how much work I have each week. In my weeks that are on the busier side, I make sure to find time to take care of myself and have time to recharge. Personally, I enjoy spending time alone watching my favorite shows or movies while I relax. On the weeks that I am less busy, I spend that extra time studying for my classes or preparing for my job. Having a balance between work and fun in life can help a person be a better leader because they are able to devote their full attention to the project that they are working on. As leaders, if we find ourselves spending too much time working on our projects we face the risk of getting burned out and our projects can suffer because of our lack of interest. On the opposite side of that, our projects can also suffer if we are not devoting the appropriate amount of time to them.
Chancellor Allison Garrett was wonderful to hear from and her bits of advice. She discussed taking advantage and learning different skills throughout college and that you don’t make progress doing easy stuff. It was easy to understand what she meant and notice how I can apply that to myself and leadership skills. Getting out of your comfort zone is essential to being a well adapted leader. She joked that the older you get, you get 2 out of 3 C’s. Either you get Children, Career, or a clean house, and even though I don’t have children I can still see this truth in my own life. Finally she finished it up with urging us to have interesting or quirky things on our resumes to help get us noticed. When I got to personally take to Garrett she made she urged us to vote and she jokingly said you can’t complain if you don’t vote.
In my life I try to keep balance between pursuing my passions and my relationships by creating set times to spend with each of the people in my life separately. I love going to do fun things occasionally but I also set aside specific study dates every week or coffee dates. If I do not have planned times for one on one time then I end up waiting for one of my friends to be the first one to reach out. If they don’t reach out first then I end up spending all of my time sleeping, reading, and studying. Social interaction just is not the first thing on my mind! However, the times that I meet with my friends and family and end up just talking are far more fulfilling than the day to day events such as reading and sleeping. Talking with people and listening to them helps me to stay in touch with other perspectives, offer support and advice to others, share some of the things troubling me, and share my knowledge about things I am learning about. Afterwards I may walk away exhausted but always fulfilled. My curiosity is renewed, I have served others through my friendships and maybe made their day a little better, I feel less alone, and my passion for life in general burns bigger and brighter. I feel that these intentional times are essential for not only a leader but for everyone. People were created to share life together not to go through it alone.
Balance is definitely a strength I am still trying to find. I am the type of person that needs recharge days but I am also constantly involved in so many things. This can feel overwhelming and make life feel like a drag. I try to remind myself to pencil in times of the day for me. Read a book, listen to music, go dance by myself, lay in bed and just watch a movie. Find times to breathe and decompress. I also have been working not feeling bad for saying no sometimes. We can’t all do everything and we fool ourselves with thinking we can. It’s okay to say yes to yourself and no to other people sometimes. As a leader this is an important skill. You can’t pour into others when you’re not pouring into yourself first.
So far, finding balance has been easy, mostly because the workload isn’t as big as I believed it would be. What I try to do is to finish any assignments or responsibilities as soon as possible, so I can focus on actively spending time with friends and family. However, I am aware that things won’t be as easy moving forward. I plan to stick with my current strategy, but I might change to start scheduling and planning and adhere to it as much as possible.
As a leader, balance is essential because without it it would be difficult to achieve any personal and academic goals. If you spend too much time focusing on responsibilities, it is easy to burn out and lose contact with loved ones. But if you don’t give responsibilities the dedication needed, personal and community growth won’t be as successful. Finding balance while leading is important because it can help reduce burnout and can teach others how to balance their responsibilities and personal life.
Chancellor Garrett made a wonderful point about how we should balance things in our life. I believe I do a good job of balancing school and personal life. Although I make my school my top priority right now, I still find time in my week to call my family, hangout with my friends, and occasionally go out. As of right now, school is my passion and I try and get all of my work done throughout the week so when I go home, I have time to go to church, hangout with my siblings, and pursue my romantic relationships as well. I believe that I could do a better job of communicating with people that I do not have time at that moment rather than just ignoring them while I am trying to do homework. I also believe that I can do a better job of relaxing a little bit and let other people in to help me. I believe that we all can do a better job in making time for the important things in our life but sometimes what you are doing right now could be the best thing for you.
Finding balance in life can, no doubt, be difficult. What I try to do is to remember that there is more to life than a particular goal, job, grade, etc. One specific thing I do to find balance in my life is take time to hang out with friends and catch up with people who are important in my life. For instance, sometimes I will just tell myself to take a break, and I will call one of my friends, and we just talk and catch up for an hour or two. I certainly believe finding balance in life is crucial to being an effective leader. I believe finding balance in life helps to make me a better leader because it allows me to avoid burnout. In other words, it allows me to prevent working/studying in excess to where every aspect of life is just exhausting. As a leader, I believe it is essential to always be at the top of my game, and I cannot do that if I am burnt out. So, ultimately, I believe balance can make me a better leader because it allows me to have a sharper mind and to be able to do my job and lead to the best of my potential. I am sure many of us have heard the following saying: “Too much of anything isn’t good.” I certainly believe this saying supports the need for balance in our lives, and this is certainly applicable to being a better and more effective leader.
Finding balance in life is one of the most difficult things that anyone can overcome. In my opinion, it gets especially harder in college because college students normally work, focus on school, and try to be involved in different aspects of campus life. That is the case for me and I have really been trying to figure out how to balance all of these things at once. Chancellor Allison’s talk on balance was very inspiring because she speaks on the importance of understanding people who haven’t really found their balance yet. Being one of those people I often find comfort in people who understand that that balance is not that easy to achieve. Balance can make me a better leader because I’ll be able to understand the differences in how I operate at different times. Understanding balance would also allow me to not stretch myself too thin and have time to relax.
As a freshman in college, it can be very difficult to balance everything that comes with being in a new environment. Some examples are learning to be independent, juggling academics and extracurriculars, and meeting new people. For me, in order to balance everything, my go-to technique is to sit down and write in my planner. Making to-do lists helps me to ease my mind and it is easy to schedule times for homework and organizational events. I think balance helps in the sense that you can prioritize what needs to get done and focus on important things without worrying or getting anxious that you are forgetting to do something.
For me, balance isn’t as much so about finding time for my relationships, but rather finding time for myself. I believe I’m pretty good at balancing school, friends, and work, but the truth is that I have a part of me that’s introverted and would rather stay in her bed watching a movie than go out with friends. I try my hardest to say yes to things so that I won’t miss out and regret not going later on, but sometimes it’s important to prioritize that introvert in me and allow myself downtime. This helps me forget about any stressors in my life for a few hours and is a time when there are no expectations and I can just be. I’ve found that if I don’t give myself alone time like this, my “social battery” will run out and I’ll become irritable, sometimes snapping at the people I love, which I never mean to do. Most of my friends know this about me and respect when I don’t want to hang out because I’d rather be alone.
Throughout Chancellor Allison Garrett’s talk on Tuesday one of the most important themes she touched on was the idea to have a balance in your life. Throughout my time in college it has been a struggle to find a balance in my own life. With school, rowing, and LOT sometimes it can be hard to find time to do things for myself. I have realized that although all the undertakings listed above are very important it is also very important to take time for yourself. Throughout my high school journey I found taking time to myself especially important when I experienced burnout from my sport. During this time if I had not taken time to regroup and do things solely for me I would have probably not found the love for my sport again. To incorporate time for myself while I am here at college I try to do all of my schoolwork on the weekdays and during “work” hours. By doing this I will have some evenings and all of the weekends to focus on the things that make me most happy. This helps me become a better leader because it makes me less prone to burnout, a happier person all together, and more time to focus on what I am most passionate about.
Our work can take over everything else in our lives. We are so eager to achieve success in the profession that we can forget about our well-being.
In order for our physical, emotional and mental health to improve and our careers to go up, we need to create a small imbalance between work and personal life.
The optimal tilt of the balance between professional activity and personal life gives many positive effects. Stress is localized, the danger of getting emotional burnout due to the wave-like load on the main areas of life disappears.
Due to the alternating bias in one direction or the other, it is possible to achieve multiple growth in the chosen area. And in the long term, to achieve general well-being.
5 ways to restore balance in life
Practice balance
Prioritize
Set different goals
Observe the accuracy
Enlist support
Balance is not an end goal, but a process. Achieving balance does not mean being calm, relaxed and satisfied all the time. The balance can happen within a moment, but it will be repeated again and again. Instead of trying to stay in a state of balance all the time, try to find it every day among a mountain of cases. It’s like practice – you don’t need to master it, the main thing is to practice! Once you learn how to practice balance, you will find it. Of course, there is a risk of losing it again and finding it again.
For me to find balance in my life, it really depends on the situation I am in and what is going mentally. Usually I divide what needs to be done first to last, or what can’t be pushed off to what can. For example I would rather get a paper done for class and reschedule with a friend because I know I have time to spend with a friend a different day. Finding balance as leader can help me not feel as stressed out and help me think clearer. Also can help me get a project done with minimal mistakes because I know what needs more focus at times and what needs to get done.
Trying to find balance in life can be difficult no matter what you are facing or trying to pursue. The way I try to find balance in my life is keeping my social life and work separate. I do not carry problems I have in class or in college into my mind when I am with friends, I have three places where I study outside of those places I do not let school stress me out. If that does start to happen I just have to remind myself where I am and that I do not have to worry about that right now. This lets me relax and keep my mind fresh for when I go to study or tackle a challenge next. This also helps me to be more productive when I work because I have no outside distractions because I know those spaces are work spaces. Knowing how to keep work out of everyday life also helps me to lead because when I do have to step up and lead I can completely focus on the task at hand.
Balance is always something I tend to work on whether is in my personal relationships, school, or work. It is hard to find that common ground when you are trying to juggle many things. What I always try to do is keep myself organized in whatever I do like schedules, to-do lists, etc, if I don’t I would feel out of place. I need to feel disciplined in the things I do because I don’t want to miss anything important. It also reflects how others see you, because if you become the person that always cancels things or people then their lack of trust and confidence decreases in you. As a leader, you have to know to prioritize people and your goals. You also set an example for people whether you are watched or not. For me, I always make sure that what I’m doing is satisficing from another perspective, and if I would like myself if I see that same thing in another person.
Despite my involvement in high school supplying me with an ever going schedule, I have never felt the challenge of balance until starting college. With a plate full of homework, tests, work, clubs, organizations, community service, sports, and social events, there never seems to be an end to the responsibilities of college life. To find a balance in the midst seems impossible, and some days, it is. However, through trial and error, and from the advice of those like Chancellor Alison Garrett, I have found that prioritizing things that fill me with joy and purpose is the most important step in maintaining a balance. As someone who struggles with FOMO, I often force myself to participate in everything in order to avoid missing out. Recently I have found that giving my energy to the things that contribute to my happiness and success is beneficial to my schedule. Upon this realization, I have become a more focused, loyal, and dedicated leader to the people and organizations in my life. I have finally allowed myself the time to engage and grow in my relationships.
Balance is key to maintaining a healthy relationship with yourself and those who surround you. Living a balanced life can be difficult when you put it into practical terms. For example, finding a healthy work/life balance can seem scary. But when you put intentionality behind everything you do, it gets a lot easier. Finding your “why?” or your purpose behind your actions is a great way to be balanced. I know that doing my homework is a form of choosing growth because it benefits me in the long run. I also know that staying up late with my friends is choosing growth because it allows me to have fun, which is essential to maintaining a balanced life. Balance can make you a great leader because it allows you to be selfless and selfish. Leaders know that their own needs matter just as much as their followers.
In order to find balance in my life, I take a step back and examine what I have accomplished. It helps me to keep grounded within my roots when I look at what I’ve done and what I have. Maintaining my relationships is easier when I am grounded. Leadership can be made better if you can balance being a leader with being a friend and having the ability to connect with a diverse group of people.
Honestly, I sometimes have a rough time balancing pursuing my goals while also investing into my relationships. When I do something, I do it fully and commit 100% to it. Because of this, if I’m doing or pursuing multiple things at once, things get chaotic fast. However, compartmentalizing my tasks, as well as emotions, has helped. Being able to tell myself, “this feeling has absolutely nothing to do with the task at hand, I can worry about this later” is a valuable skill.
Additionally, balance is a skill every good leader needs. Truly, I think every leader needs to know how to have or create balance. If you’re incredibly burnt out because you’re having trouble balancing your responsibilities, you’re going to have a hard time being a good leader. If you’re unorganized, overbooked, or overwhelmed, it’s going to be hard to be a good leader. This is why it is so important to prioritize finding a balance in your day to day life.
Balance is key to all active leaders and mentors. It is very important to keep yourself organized, not just for yourself, but for the people that reach out to you. Those people that look up to you and seek help will not feel like their voice is important if you do not have the time to help. Our job as leaders is to reach out to those who are not seen and lift them up to lead them on the right path. I also think it is imperative not to extend yourself too much. To give your undivided attention to someone who is needing advice makes an incredible difference. I am where I am today because of the person who was always there for me and gave me the undivided attention I needed.
Chancellor Garrett went over the importance of balance in life. To find balance, I have to be smart in my time management. Since I’m working, going to class, and being involved with the Central Pantry and my two organizations, I’ve been feeling like I am not leading. After Chancellor Garrett’s speech, I realized that wherever I am, I can be a leader. Balancing my time is making me a better leader by strengthing my time management.
I try to find a balance in my life by making sure each thing has an allotted time and place. I try to make time for each thing so that I don’t get overwhelmed or stressed by overdoing it. This can allow me to be a better leader because to perform at my highest level I have to not be overwhelmed or stressed or lazy. Performing at my best comes with knowing what I can handle and what I can put forth my full attention and effort to so that I can be efficient in my work. Having others that I lead see what a good balance in their lives can do keeps them happy and shows them how to perform at their best as well.
I think that finding balance in life is all about establishing proper priorities. Part of establishing these priorities is acknowledging that you will not be strong in certain areas of life. I think that Chancellor Garrett’s statement on “A clean house, a family, and a career, you can only pick 2”, lays this concept out very well. If you want to be exceptional at something, then you have to be willing to be subpar at other things. In my life, I have found lately that the place I am cutting time from to better myself is video games. I have acknowledged that my studies, my faith, my family, and my future career are all more valuable to me than my prowess at the the games I play competitively. I think gaining this perspective now will allow me to lead better in the future because it allows me to realize that whatever I may be leading is one of many small pieces of peoples lives, even though it may be a larger part of mine.
I approach finding a balance in my life by taking care of my mental health and staying organized. My google calendar helps me see my task and helps me determine if I can take on another. Planning my time and not overwhelming myself is very important. Saying no to things I can’t put my all into is also very important. I like to take time out of my schedule to communicate with family and friends to maintain a healthy relationships. I also take out time for myself to fully take care of my mental health. I use the saying ” put on your oxygen mask before helping someone else”. In order for me to help others I must be mentally stable. Which I believe can make you a better leader.
How do you approach trying to find balance in your own life? How can balance make you a better leader?
I understand the importance in having balance in life. I try to not take on too many things at one time, balance is key so I try to finish each task before moving on to the next. the ability to balance is key to being a good leader, as you will have many task that need to be done. having balance also makes things manageable and life easier.
I find balance in my life by setting aside time for each of my priorities. For example, finding a balance between work, school, and my personal life was a difficult challenge I had when starting this year. While working 3 days a week and having school 2 days a week, it was difficult to find time for myself except for late at night. This caused me to have a terrible sleep schedule. The way I figured out what was best for me, was to set aside time each day at specific times to focus on different things. The same applies in leadership. Every leader has their personal lives to attend to. Having set times for different tasks or responsibilities, helps to create a better focus in each area.
My speech and debate coach tried to teach me about balance my sophomore year of high school, but I’ll admit, I don’t think I really understood the full concept until my last semester of high school. It wasn’t the idea that was hard for me, it was the idea of saying no. I always said yes to everyone and everything, and as a result, I had my plate full. Too full. I think I realized the importance of balance when I started to burn out my senior year, and I knew it was much too early to burn out. So I approach balance as an obligation because if I don’t I ware myself too thin. Knowing this about myself helps me be a better leadership because I know when to say no to things and pass off responsibility if I’m not capable. I’m no help to anyone if I’m not functioning.
I agree with Chancellor Garrett that keeping a healthy balance between pursuing your passions and maintain your relationships is the key to having a fulfilling and proactive life. At the same time, I can not think of a single person who has perfected this balance. Most people fall on either side of the scale, they either focus too heavily on what they are passionate about and lose the time and energy for the people in there life, or they spend so much time with those people that they struggle to find time to do what they are passionate about. I can say for myself that I more so focus on my relationships over my passions, and I actively try to help even the scale. What works best for me is finding a specific time during the week where I focus only on myself, my hobbies, and self growth to ensure I don’t stretch myself thin. In my own personal experience, I cannot lead others if I don’t also have my own best interest in mind. Its very mentally deteriorating to keep giving out of an empty pot, which is why it is so important to maintain that balance in life.
Chancellor Garret emphasized the importance pursuing things we are passionate about while balancing out relationships. I work very hard to have balance in my life. I approach balancing my life by making sure to finish the necessary tasks in the day, while also making sure I don’t go too long without communicating with the people in my life. Balance is needed to make you a better leader. It will keep you grounded which will make you easier to connect with.
I fully agree that balance is important to have as a leader because, without it, things get out of control. I try to maintain balance by spreading my leadership over multiple things. Instead of just pouring into one organization with my leadership, I try to pour into multiple. Another way I maintain balance is I allow myself to have time to myself. While organizations, grades, relationships, and careers are important, they all can become too much if that is all you focus on. Letting myself have alone time to de-stress is the most effective way that I balance my life and my role as a leader.
In today’s society everything is so busy and we often find ourselves trying to keep up with everything around us. When it comes to trying to maintain a balance in my life, I often try to schedule a time at least once a week, where I can focus on my relationships or even just my mental health. Especially in college, it is so easy to get wrapped up into so many different things and become so busy. Recently I was so busy that my sleeping and eating schedule were put on the back burner and it was only when I became pretty sick that I realized I needed to slow down and focus on my health, rather than everything else. As leaders it is so important that we are making time to focus not only on our health, but also our relationships. When we make ourselves busy with everything we are passionate about it is hard to give our all. In everything we do we should be giving 100%, but when we don’t have that necessary balance, we can’t give the effort and focus to each area. When we aren’t putting our all in we can’t nurture the relationships that are necessary and we can’t show others what a true leader looks like. It is so imperative that we find a balance, so we remain healthy, but also so we may foster healthy relationships that allow everyone room for growth.
One thing Chancellor Garrett talked about was to be involved in a LOT of things, and I have done since being in college was getting involved in a multiple of organizations. I did not realize how challenging it has been to have good time management. I have learned to not stress about everything and let it fall into place. This also helps me become a better leader because one thing leaders go through is stress. Being able to take a step back and not let it overwhelm you has helped me have better time management.
Maintaining important relationships in your life is vital to finding balance from a social perspective. All too frequently, our closest loved ones can be put aside in favor of the work itself, professional contacts, and acquaintances. The people who ought to matter the most to us our close relatives and families must never be taken for granted. This implies that we must create and uphold limits that safeguard such relationships. Prioritizing our time and attention is necessary to make sure that such relationships are properly cultivated. Too frequently, important occasions in our families’ lives are missed as a result of job obligations or erroneous work expectations. The moment will pass along with the job, but the time spent with our loved ones will be treasured and remembered forever. It may also be the case that we are not fully present while we are with our families because we are preoccupied with calls or emails or are lost in our thoughts. It also involves surrounding yourself with the appropriate people and looking to mentors, role models, and other sources of inspiration for advice. When we successfully compartmentalize these conflicting desires, balance is achieved. We discover it when we check to make sure that our obligations as partners, parents, and kids are not being neglected or sacrificed in favor of our professional obligations.
Maintaining balance as a busy person is something that has always been important to me. Personally, if I get caught up in the different tasks I have to complete, and not also place myself in the community, then life is a bit harder. Chancellor Allison Garrett made it very clear how dire it is for humans to have relationships with one another. I believe that if we are constantly surrounding ourselves with other people and placing ourselves in a community then it will benefit us as a leader. I think this is because it will help us not be as robotic, and that balance that we create for ourselves also serves as a sense of hope and trust with the people around us. It can remind us to do things that we enjoy even outside of work. We can cherish our relationships built through and outside of work, jobs, or just a role as a leader.
If we want to pour into our passions, we have to be poured into as well. This means that fostering and growing the relationships you have is essential to your own growth. I’m actually more productive in my passions and my hobbies when I don’t spend all my time on them. I first do things that build me up, like reading or praying. Then I make a list and check it off through the day. When I’m done, I pursue my passions and hobbies. This allows me to keep them intentional and not worry about too many things at once. It all gets overwhelming quick if I don’t follow this in my day to day.
For me, I work almost a full time job, as well as being in school full time, and additional school organizations. Transitioning into an adult job and college at the same time has been hard. I am still navigating and figuring out what works best for me. As I have gone through this process, I have learned to plan out everything in advance. I get distracted very easily, and having a set time designated to each activity in my life has helped me a lot. Learning better time management will help me be a leader. Time management is a very important life skill. When I am disorganized with my time it stresses me out. I do not lead as well whenever I am stressed because my mind is running a thousand miles a minute. This prevents me from focusing on the task at hand and prioritizing the people who I am leading.
I have experienced having to balance different aspects in my life a lot since I have moved to college. I have begun to get involved in several organizations. I have rushed a fraternity, while trying to stay active in LOT, doing school, and just having a little bit of free time. It has been pretty difficult. I have tried to a even balance while focusing on school. It has been very difficult to build lasting relationships outside of my organizations just because I have devoted all my time to them. Rushing a fraternity has taught me to grow up and deal with these difficulties and learn how to have balance.
Finding balance has always been something I have struggled with. One thing that helped me, that I really didn’t expect me to, was getting a job during high school. It really helped me learn my limits and realize how much I can actually do in a week. Finding balance in college is definitely a little different, as I really want to be involved but sometimes you just have to realize that it’s not possible to be eight places at once and that that’s okay. Finding balance is vital to be able to be a good member of a team, but especially in being a leader. There’s no way to be a good leader if you can never be with your team because you are being tugged this way and that every day.
I try to find balance in my life by reflecting on the things that matter to me most quite frequently. Doing this helps me make sure I am not fixating or spending too much energy on things that don’t matter. Reflecting helps bring the things that are important to me back into focus, such as family and friends, and that gives me a better balance with the daily activities of life. Balance can make you a better leader by putting everything into perspective when working towards a goal. Seeing the bigger picture can give you a better idea of what should be done to move forward. Although it can sometimes be difficult to achieve, balance is one of the key aspects of what being a leader means to me.
Balance is not just maintaining a healthy work life while maintaining healthy relationships, but also balance within yourself. For balance to work, you must be prepared to make your schedule known to those you have a relationship with, and take time to cultivate and build on your relationships. Valuing people is incredibly important too. Go out of your way from time to time to make sure your friends understand that you are here for them. Take time off to be with the people you love. At the end of the day, you can’t solely work on your goals, because you’ll end up pushing people away that you should be with when you cross that finish line. What’s a healthy job mentality without a break with friends?
When looking into my life, I find that work, school, relationships, and volunteering are large portions of my time. Trying to balance time with responsibilities and a healthy lifestyle can be overwhelming and difficult. Despite the challenge, balance is crucial in being the most capable leader, as you are fit to help others with focus and passion. When finding balance, I must plan my schedule, and make sure that I am capable of completing my responsibilities alongside staying healthy. If I am ever struggling to complete my responsibilities, I look at my planner, and figure out where I need to spend my time the most. If my mental health is lacking, and I am able to, I will find time to rest, or take a break from a task. Planning is crucial in being the best leader, as I can establish that my time is best serving myself and others effectively.
My approach to finding balance in life is by focusing on the things that matter the most. One way I do this is by prioritizing. I try to accomplish things in order of importance, value, and urgency. For example, if I have several volunteer or service projects available to me, I would choose the ones that I will get the most hours and enjoyment out of. Going to every one of them is not reasonable and may not be worthwhile. Finding balance as a leader is crucial as it leads to less stress and anxiety. Stress and anxiety can not only affect the leader but it can affect the group that you are leading as well. Just as Chancellor Garrett mentioned, “life is too short” so we need to make the most out of our life by living life to the fullest through maximum enjoyment and satisfaction instead of stress.
I have often found it pretty difficult to balance everything that I have going on in my life, but one way that I have found to help me is by creating schedules. I have found that by actually writing things out and putting it down somewhere it helps me remember all the tasks that I have to do. I think that as leaders we often take on many responsibilities that sometimes can overwhelm us, but by writing them down and creating an agenda for the day I think it takes a burden off of me personally.