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This week, I am speaking with a woman whose mission is to help people find more balance in their lives. It is not possible to live a perfectly-balanced life because, let’s face it, life happens. All it takes is one phone call, email or text message to wreck our plans and turn life upside down.
On the other hand, many of us have lived with our lives out of balance for years, sometimes decades. We need a compassionate and impartial third-party to open our eyes to the imbalance and set us on a much better path.
Lori Ann King is a New Yorker who had always juggled multiple jobs and side hustles just to keep moving forward.
However, while drifting through an ebb-and-flow of setbacks and comebacks over the past five years, Lori’s life took a turn for the worse in 2020. She and her husband both lost their jobs, and their van needed a new transmission just days before they moved across the country to a new home in New Mexico. Even worse, Jim was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
Living in a new area and away from their support network while battling a medical setback was not a particularly pleasant way to navigate through life. Then, toss in the isolation of COVID and it created a cascading set of problems.
Yet, it was also one of the most prolific periods in Lori’s life. She wrote three books during that time, including one the couple wrote together. Since 2017, Lori has written five books and developed an online platform to help people find balance in their lives.
In doing research for her projects, Lori discovered there were a lot of self-help books about physical and career transformations. However, there weren’t many resources directed at addressing mindset changes that make transformation possible.
The problem is that some transformations come on suddenly, but often linger as people work their way through all the changes. Physical healing may be required, but transitions often require emotional healing as well.
To achieve that emotional balance, people need to do something that refreshes their soul and fuels their passion.
Lori offered a valuable reminder that we all need solitude every now and then to fuel our heart and give us energy. However, too much solitude turns into isolation, which results in sadness and loneliness.
One of the most profound things Lori said was in describing the need to approach our calendar from an energy perspective rather than a time perspective. We can always juggle things around to cram one more activity or appointment into our calendar, but we need space to relax, unwind and declutter our minds, too.
Sometimes we feel pressured into doing things because we don’t know how to say “no” because we do not want disappoint someone. Yet, Lori learned that disappointing herself usually hurts longer and lasts longer than the feeling of disappointing someone else.
In her book, Wheels to Wellbeing, Lori used a bicycling metaphor. When biking, people must keep moving or they’ll fall over. However, people need to maintain proper balance in order to move forward. When properly aligned, a bicycle’s spokes ensure the tire remains round in order to support a rider.
Our life involves a variety of spokes which provide support, whether it is faith, nutrition, relationships, finances or any of the items Lori identified. All of them need to be in balance for us to move forward. By regularly evaluating your wheel, you can better see how you’re doing at the moment, and make adjustments in areas that need more attention.
Lori said too many people simply allow life to happen to them. It’s essential that people be aware of what’s happening to them and around them so they can make adjustments before small problems become large ones. That regular self-evaluation also helps avoid burnout and depression.
People who would like to connect with Lori can visit www.loriannking.com. Wheels to Wellbeing, and all her other books, can be found on amazon.com.
That’s all I have for this week’s show. If you’d like help in identifying a purpose for your life or to get help planning your next steps, I’m offering a complimentary brainstorming session to members of the Forward From 50 Facebook community. For details, connect with me on Facebook or visit www.forwardfrom50.com.
After closing his business and enduring several painful years of uncertainty regarding what to do with his life, Greg founded Forward From 50 to help men and women over 50 to live more purposeful lives by pursuing things they are passionate about. A Wisconsin native, Greg currently lives in Arizona.