You might be a great nurse, but you never have time to exercise or clean your house. You may be a great parent or spouse, but you never seem to find the time to do the volunteer work that you love so much. You may love your work and your family, but you always seem to neglect yourself and your own needs.
Many nurses aren’t even close to achieving balance. Without balance, you may be harming yourself, and you may not be able to be the excellent nurse, or parent, or spouse, or volunteer that you want to be or are able to be.
B is for Balance outlines 12 areas in which nurses can take steps to simplify and improve their lives, including:
1. Defining your overarching purpose in life
2. Simplifying your life
3. Addressing your major stressors
4. Focusing and envisioning possibilities
5. Increasing engagement in your life
6. Harnessing technology
7. Dealing with fatigue
8. Gaining better balance at work
9. Improving sleep health
10. Living a happier, healthier life
11. Reinventing your life
12. Finding destiny in balance
For example, take living a healthier life. Are you exercising, eating healthy foods and taking good care of your body? If you’re not, that’s an area rife with potential for improvement.
“You cannot inhale your McDonald’s at the nurse’s station and sit and drink soft drinks all day long and think that your body is going to reward you for that behavior,” said Weinstein. “Your body will retaliate.”
One of the first things that you can do to assess your current state and determine where you want to take your life is to figure out your purpose. Ask yourself: who do you want to be? What contributions do you want to make during your life?
Hello, my name is Jack Sparrow. I'm a 50 year old self-employed Pirate from the Caribbean.