Relationships are important to a healthy balance. We all need other people in our lives. Spending time with family or friends can help rejuvenate us. We also need people we can depend upon in times of need – to provide emotional support, comfort, or a helping hand.
Sometimes we get so busy that we neglect important relationships – with our spouse, children, extended family, or friends. It’s easy to take our spouse for granted, and then eventually drift apart. We need to invest time to nurture our marriage. When we’re busy, we often don’t make time for friends, and our friendships fade over time. How can we make these important relationships a priority? Here are ten tips to help you maintain relationships over time.
- Schedule a date night with your spouse. Go out for coffee, dinner, a movie, etc. or spend a quiet, intimate evening at home and send the kids to a sitter’s house.
- Attend a marriage retreat together once a year.
- Get away for an overnight stay every few months. Time away from work, home, and kids will do wonders for your marriage.
- Use Skype to connect with family members who live far away. It’s the next best thing to being there.
- Use Facebook or e-mail to catch up with extended family and friends.
- Schedule a lunch date with a friend at least once a month.
- Schedule a game night or potluck dinner once a month with friends and neighbors.
- Call on your cell phone and catch up with a friend. You can even talk while you’re folding laundry or driving on the freeway.
- Keep a record of birthdays of family members and close friends. Then at the beginning of each month, buy birthday cards for everyone with a birthday that month.
- Develop a good support network of people (family, friends, neighbors) with whom you can exchange favors.
Do you have any tips to add to this list? Please share with other readers what you do to maintain important relationships?
Are you living a life you love? Having a personal vision is critical to having the life you want! Your personal vision is your reason for being; it’s why you’re here on this earth. Your vision expresses your personal sense of purpose and meaning in life. It includes the qualities you’d like to have and what you’d like to contribute to the world. It should inspire and motivate you to be the best that you can be.
Having a personal vision is critical to having the life and career that you want. If you don’t create your vision, it will be determined for you by your circumstances and by other people. Having a defined vision helps you live your life on purpose rather than by chance.
How do you create your personal vision statement? Set aside some quiet time for yourself. Find a place where you won’t be interrupted or distracted. Allow yourself at least an hour or so. Get comfortable and relaxed. Prepare to be open and explore your values and vision. Your mission comes from deep inside you, so listen to your heart’s desire. Answer the following questions thoughtfully.
- What would I most like to have in my life?
- What are my greatest moments of happiness and fulfillment?
- What qualities and characteristics are most important to me?
- What activities in my personal life are most fulfilling?
- What activities in my professional life are most fulfilling?
- What do I want to accomplish in my lifetime?
- If I had unlimited time and resources, what would I do?
- What talents and skills do I have?
- How can I best contribute to others?
- What legacy do I want to leave?
Once you’ve answered these questions, look for common themes. Having done this preliminary work, then answer the question, “What is my personal vision?” Write whatever comes to mind. This becomes your first draft of your personal vision statement. Review and refine it until you feel comfortable with it. The format is up to you. It can be one page (or two or three), one paragraph, or one sentence. As long as it is meaningful to you, that’s all that matters.
Once it’s written, refer to it often. You might even memorize it, so that it becomes ingrained in you. Your personal vision becomes your personal constitution. Use it to guide your day-to-day decisions and actions. By doing so, you’ll find that you’ll move closer and closer to achieving your vision. Then when you reach the end of your life, you can look back with peace and satisfaction knowing you have achieved your mission in life!
Managing a busy household can at times feel overwhelming, especially if you work full-time. Oftentimes, we spend our entire weekend just catching up on household duties, and don’t have any time for our families or ourselves. How can you better manage your household in order to minimize the time spent on these activities, so you have more time to relax and enjoy your weekend? Here are ten tips to help you save time and run a more efficient household.
- Cook in large quantities and freeze meals ahead of time. Then when you come home from work feeling exhausted you can just pop dinner into the microwave.
- Pack your lunch the night before, so mornings are not such a rush.
- Hire a housekeeper. It’s worth it! The time you typically spend cleaning can be spent with family.
- Hire a neighborhood teen to mow your lawn.
- Have a family work day – washing windows, doing yard work, or whatever project needs to be done. Then reward the family with a fun activity afterwards.
- Establish your standards of cleanliness. Determine what is clean enough. (After all, your house doesn’t need to look like the cover of Better Homes and Gardens magazine).
- Shop on-line. Then you can avoid travel time and long lines.
- Buy your groceries online and have them delivered.
- Pay your bills online. Save time… and stamps.
- Consolidate errands. Stop by the post office, dry cleaners and video store on the way home from work.
What time-saving tips can you share with other readers?