DEAR HARRIETTE: This year, I made a conscious decision to prioritize my professional life, and it has seen significant growth. However, this focus has come at the expense of my personal life.
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I’m finding it challenging to balance both aspects, as the majority of my time and energy goes into work-related commitments.
How can I maintain a healthy equilibrium without losing momentum in my career or neglecting my personal relationships?
— Seeking Balance
DEAR SEEKING BALANCE: Being able to build a career and nurture a healthy personal life is not easy, even as it is extremely important. What is required is strategy.
Step back and survey your life. List what you have done to get to where you are today. In this one year, what strides have you made, and what did you do to get there?
Make another list of what you may have missed or wished you had made time to do. One more list should be of what you want to do differently or more of in 2024.
Examine your lists closely. Now create a 2024 plan with key goals for each quarter.
Delineate those goals based on professional, personal and well-being objectives. What do you need to do for work that will continue to grow your career? For your personal life, who do you want to spend more or less time with, etc.? For well-being, what do you need to do to be healthy physically, mentally and spiritually?
Brainstorm all the things that you can dream of for each of those buckets. Write them all down. Be bold with your ideas. Then sort them all.
On a large calendar, map out key themes for each quarter, month, week — and day, in some cases. Put priorities in each category in each month.
When you put your stake in the game and say out loud to yourself that you will exercise, you will call your friends, you will eat healthier, etc., chances are you will do it at least some of the time.
DEAR HARRIETTE: I’m feeling overwhelmed by the constant exposure to distressing and traumatic stories on social media.
While I’m actively trying to grow my personal brand and presence there, this overload is affecting my mental health and well-being.
How can I strike a balance between limiting exposure to such content and continuing to grow my following without compromising my mental health?
— Need Blinders
DEAR NEED BLINDERS: Be careful what you look at. I say this because if you are constantly seeing traumatic stories on social media, it is because that is what you look at the most.
The algorithms used to highlight content are based on user activity. You must stop lingering over disturbing content. Stop reacting to it in any way, and move on.
Choose to look at positive content. Retrain your brain to pay attention to uplifting ideas.
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Also, limit your time on social media. Use parental controls to cut yourself off after whatever period of time you feel is healthy. This may take time, but you can curate your experience.
Harriette Cole is a lifestylist and founder of DREAMLEAPERS, an initiative to help people access and activate their dreams. You can send questions [email protected] or c/o Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.
