If you create an act, you create a habit. If you create a habit, you create character. If you create a character, you create a destiny. André Maurois
As a Balanced Professional, your habits are your best defense and offence for creating and keeping your life balance. Living the life you want comes down to simple acts of everyday life, done consistently and persistently. Whatever you want – connection with family, better body, mental peace – you can have a daily habit to create this every day in your life.
Start by selecting one of the habits below, or any other one from your ‘Balanced Professional’ plan. With conscious focus, repeat this practice day after day, week after week. After 2 months it will be easier to continue your habit than to stop it. After some years your habit develops into a lifestyle, and no effort is needed anymore – the ideal behavior flows naturally from your core
1. Wake up early
Why: Win the ‘lazy’ part of yourself every morning. Use the early mornings for important things, like these habits, before heading to work.
How: Wake up tomorrow 15 min earlier than usual. Continue waking up at that time until you are used to it, and then set the alarm for another 15 min earlier. Learn to go earlier to bed.
2. Take quiet time
Why: Recharge your soul every morning. Build a peaceful core inside of you that lets you to react to situations with calmness and to make decisions without stress.
How: Meditate, sit silently, watch sheep, stare at something beautiful, walk in the nature… anything that keeps you silently focused for at least 15 min daily.
3. Move your body
Why: You spend 24/7 in your body. By taking care of it, you both look and feel good.
How: Find out what kind of exercises your body loves to do. Select something small and simple, and do it regularly.
4. Practice acceptance
Why: You can’t change people, or affect things outside your influence. Instead of getting stressed about them, just accept them. That leaves much more energy for focusing on things that you can influence.
How: Start practicing acceptance with yourself. Every morning, look yourself at the mirror, and tell yourself: “I accept you exactly as you are.”
5. Work with focus
Why: To have time to enjoy the various good things in life, stop wasting time at work. Focus on the important things, achieve your objectives and go home early.
How: Select one important (and not urgent) objective for each day. Work on it from the morning until you have reached it. Allow no distractions; don’t open your mailbox until only afterwards.
6. Spend time with people you care about
Why: Man is a social animal. To feel that you live fully, you need healthy relationships.
How: Keep time with your family and friends sacred. Prioritize or book daily some time for real interaction with people that you care about.
7. Eat healthy
Why: What you eat today, turns into your cells in few weeks. By eating healthy now, you need less medicines later.
How: Eat more greens, and less processed food.
8. Spend more time at dinner table
Why: There is a direct relationship between the time spent in enjoying food with other people, and your level of happiness. The most natural way of nourishing both body and soul is to share a meal with family / friends.
How: Spend each day at least 90 min in enjoying your meals with other people. Make sure that you put down your cutlery / chopsticks while eating. Open your mouth as much for speaking, as you do for adding food.
9. Smile
Why: The physical acts guide your emotions. By actively smiling you can make each moment more positive.
How: Smile when you wake up, when you start your breakfast, when you leave for work, when you arrive to work… let a positive act of smiling be the starting point of each stage of the day.
10. Break your habits regularly
Why: You are not a machine. Don’t let the habits become more important than living each moment fully. Sometimes sleeping late and eating junk is just the right thing to do.
How: Listen to yourself, and do the things that your inner voice is calling you to do. 80% of the time, follow the habits that you know are good for you. 20% of the time, let yourself break your habits.
Balanced Professional 
I love this one! Thank you. Already smiling and planning to go to sleep earlier, thus no more reading of your blog today 😀
Hi, although those are just examples about habits, I want to make some comments;
1. Wake up early – why? Some of us are morning persons are some are not. For example I am much happier and more productive working from 10-18 than 8-16
2. take quiet time – I may try that.
3. Move your body – I may try that.
4. Practice acceptance – this is an excellent idea.
5. Work with focus – good idea, but on very rarely you can have only one objective for each day.
6. spend time with people – I may try that 🙂
7. Eat healthy – what is healthy seems to change during time
8. spend more time at dinner table – that just won’t work on todays world. Good theory, but impossible to put in practise.
9. smile – this is an excellent idea
10. break your habits regularly – This is good idea.