Working in the areas of mediation and conflict resolution, mediation and negotiation, and related areas I see the advantages of focusing on health, balance, and routines for success. This article provides you with several links to other sources to help with ideas related to health and balance in your work and life.  Often parties involved with the issues identified above are stressed and may have a difficult time seeing closure. By focusing on the facts, issues, emotion around the issues, and interests it may be possible for the parties to come to develop  acceptable resolution that everyone can live with when a third party experienced mediator is involved. With this in mind consider that parties coming to mediation have had their own experiences. As a mediator I do not assume from my experiences to know their experiences. Knowing this I realize that we all have varying degrees of health and balance in our lives. Some of the elements below have helped me personally. I simply wanted to share these with you to see if they may help you.  Let’s begin with the area of health.

Health

Web MD offers twelve habits to help you be healthier.  The key ideas here are:

Have breakfast

Plan your meals

Drink plenty of water

Take an exercise break

Go offline

Learn something new

Don’t smoke

Sleep well

Train your muscles

Head outdoors

Keep your balance

Be mindful

Returning to the first two items related to eating here are 20 tips for eating healthy.  Personally, I have found if I don’t buy something and have it available at home I won’t be tempted to eat things I shouldn’t. That is a major item for me. Simply keep healthy foods and don’t bring home things you want to eliminate or limit.

Consider ways to de-stress your home and de-stress your life as recommended by webMD.

As recommended by James Clear with Atomic Habits, take it slow with small steps is key with developing any new habit and with stopping bad habits. This book is a great read, and after purchasing the book the author provides you with weekly insights from himself and other notables.  So, start slow and simply begin to limit foods you know you want to limit.

One of my prior blogs addressed How to Make Your Life Amazing.  This blog offers five points addressing career wellbeing, social wellbeing, financial wellbeing, physical wellbeing, community wellbeing, and some personal observations.  Given these topics and information it is important to have balance in your life with these various elements. Let’s look at balance in a little more detail next.

Balance

All budgets are moral budgets. Reflect on this for a moment and think about this related to your career, your social relationships, your finances, your physical health, and your community. You are the best person to determine how much time you need.  As a simple person I like to work with three items at any one time. Calendor at the productivity Center suggests a top three priorities such as your physical, mental, and emotional health should always be your top priorities. While this is true overall, think about what your top three life priorities might be.

To determine your top priorities, I suggest you make a list of your top 20 or more priorities. Then check out Brian Tracy’s method of answering various questions.  Something else to consider is to explore a list of priorities and then cut the list in half. Keep doing this until you reach your top 3 items. Personally, I found this helpful.

After completing my own priority process, I ended up with faith, family, and fun as my top priorities. I admit I have an unusual perspective of fun. Mary Poppins offered in the song A Spoon Full of Sugar with  lyrics in part that stated “in every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun and snap! The job’s a game.”  This registered with me at an early age and has helped my attitude ever since. Not to be pollyanna here, but I start every day with gratitude looking into the mirror and reflect on the many ways I am blessed. This process actually trains your brain to be happier.   Fun for me also involves having passion and following my passions with continual learning and trying to make this world a better place. You can follow up from these links and determine what your top three priorities are and take it from there.

Keep in mind what you can and do control versus those things that you don’t control. To keep me oriented I keep “The Serenity Prayer” posted underneath the center of my two screens here at my work station. If you do not know the prayer here it is:

God grant me the serenity

to accept the things, I cannot change;

the courage to change the things I can;

and wisdom to know the difference.

Practicing mindfulness and keeping this prayer as a central focus, I don’t find myself becoming nearly as excited, concerned, or frustrated as I was in the past. Maybe this can help you or give you an idea to explore something from this commentary for yourself too.

Reflection

A couple of the authors from the links above suggested offering a blog on this topic. As a mediator (peacemaker) in various venues from fortune 100 board rooms to neighborhood disputes and conflicts with gangs, I have found that everyone wants to be respected, listened to, and truly be heard. My goal was not to be a coach or professional mentor, but in more recent history boards have reached out to me to work with employees struggling, with owner operator companies addressing various issues, and with helping entrepreneurs given my background. Keep in mind life provides many opportunities.  Be prepared to take appropriate risks and follow your passions. As always, let me know what you think.

Be safe.

Be well.

Have fun.