I know that you have likely heard this many times but balance is very important in today’s busy world. As a planning professional, you need to be on the ball at all times and you have to be able to answer questions for clients quickly. In order to be a highly functioning individual, one of the most important things that you have to do is to make sure that you take care of yourself. If you aren’t feeling good, if you aren’t rested and if you haven’t taken some time out for yourself, a stressful situation can impact you more than you may realize.

The event planning world is a high-stress and fast paced field. Couple that with the fast paced life that many of us lead and you can set yourself up to get sick if you do not take care of yourself properly. I used to hear people say how important balance is in life and agree with them but not change the way my life was set up. I always thought, some people just cannot handle multiple jobs and having to multi task the way I do but I can handle it, I might as well work now and put in my time to develop my career. Yes, developing your career is important I pride myself on the reputation that I have built with clients and as an event industry professional but that doesn't mean that I am invincible. Being able to do it all just took planning, I thought, but every few months I would spend days with migraine headaches or come down with a cold, this was my body’s way of making me slow down.

Slowly over time, I came to realize that I was not doing myself or the people around me any favors I was burning the candle at both ends and this was just not working anymore. I have an amazing family, a great boyfriend and some amazing friends who would always tell me to slow down and take some time for myself. Recently I decided to listen! Taking time for yourself is not selfish; it makes you more focused and helps me to be present when I am spending time with the people I care about. Following a few simple steps has helped me to realize that balance is important and so very necessary.

So far I have made 5 simple changes that I will share with you and that may change and evolve with time:

1. I try to take a few hours each day and just disconnect from emails. This does not always happen when I am working on deadlines or have a lot of events on the go, but I make the effort when I can.

2. I started prepping healthy snacks and meals to take with me each day. Having these ready to go in advance stops me from picking up a quick unhealthy snack but also works as brain food to keep you on top of your game throughout the busy day.

3. I started drinking more water. Hydration is so important in so many ways!

4. Ensuring that you get enough sleep each evening will help you to wake up each morning refreshed and make you even more productive.

5. Take some time for yourself, doing whatever makes you feel good. Take time out to reflect on things and break away from the busy world. Having some me time allows you to be more present during those special moments in life.

Instilling balance has helped me to become much more productive and it is something that I wanted to share with all of you. To help you along the way I will update you every so often on how I am doing with my balancing act. I will also share some easy and healthy recipes that I enjoy and am currently using in my meal prep rotation.

The Importance of Balance