Can we create rhythm in our lives?

My work involves interviewing and talking with many women.  I often find one of the biggest challenges facing modern women is being able to successfully create balance in their lives.

Whether you are a high-flying career woman, a busy home maker, entrepreneurial business owner or a combination of all - finding balance is a challenge.  What often sabotages this balance, is the inability to find a rhythm in our lives.  Finding this rhythm means that life is in a natural flow  - rather than a whirlwind of chaos, where you feel continually out of sync.

Have you ever felt like everything is just falling into place without too much effort?  It is wonderful when it happens. Or perhaps life is so crazily busy but everything feels so right that you don’t mind falling into bed exhausted.

Can we keep creating this renewed feeling of passion or life force, that to me feels like life is simply ‘flowing’  in the right direction.  I love that feeling, you just know you are on the right track because of it.  I sometimes wonder, is this something that happens naturally though, when the time is right or do have the ability to create this feeling more?

Often in our modern lives there is too much chaos and we are trying to be experts in so many areas, sometimes we end up mastering very little.  The result is feeling tired, frustrated and like we are not achieving enough.  We get on a roll of believing that we are underachieving, become too competitive, feel like we should always be doing more and compare ourselves unfavourably to others.

If you have heard of the Chinese religion Taoism, the basis of this religion is about creating flow and rhythm in your life.  Tao can be roughly translated to be in the flow of the universe.  Even visiting a Chinese art exhibition recently, I found the experience so peaceful - there is a flow and rhythm in all the Chinese art.  The simple act of observing this art made me feel peaceful.

I spoke with Joan Weir recently to see if we can create this sense of rhythm in our lives or whether to accept that it’s something that just happens naturally and we just need to ride the good tide when it does. (Joan is a qualified Personal Coach specialising in coaching women who want to succeed in life.)

The good news is we can actually create rhythm in our lives, we just need to work at it sometimes.

Joan has this to say, on how to create more rhythm in our lives.

“I attended a parent-teacher night last year where the issue of homework came up (actually I was the one to launch this rather touchy subject). After much discussion one brave parent asked, “Well, why do kids have homework?” Great question I thought.

The answer was about creating a rhythm or routine. By having to spend 20 minutes or so doing homework, the child learns the art of discipline. This quality time, compared to blobbing out in front of the TV or computer, strengthens a child’s willpower. It means they learn that having a rhythm creates results. What a great lesson for our kids!

So how does homework and rhythm apply to us?

Well, just as our kids benefit from having discipline in their lives, so do we. If we have a rhythm that we follow, we too will create results.  I often see clients who aren’t consistent in their actions.  I too fall into this trap too sometimes. I find that the more people stay focused on their goals and commit to doing something every day, even something small, then they achieve results much faster.  They create a rhythm in their life.

For example, one client I worked with had a dream of being an artist. By being focused, she created a rhythm of painting every day. At the end of 3 months, much to her joy, she had her first exhibition booked! I’m not saying that it was easy for her, but the commitment she made to regularly paint, to be disciplined and take action every day, made a huge difference to her results.  She created her rhythm.

So what are our daily rhythms?

Do we have a rhythm around handling emails? Updating our finances? What about our marketing rhythm? Do we have marketing activities we do each week or each month? Just think how much more productive we could be, if we did our “homework” and developed a daily, weekly and monthly rhythm to achieve the things we want in life.

I have learnt and seen many times over that being consistent in our actions, or keeping a rhythm, is one of the great keys to success.  As Aristotle said “We are what we do repeatedly. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, it is a habit.”

Have your say…

Do you think you can create rhythm?  How?  When can you tell you are not in the flow?  How do you get yourself back in rhythm?