3 Key Steps to Developing an Authentically Balanced Lifestyle
hello everyone my name is jidell lee
and i’m going to be honest
i was lost at 19 in my second year of
college
i tried to find myself in someone else
and this wasn’t the first time
but i tried to find myself in a woman i
moved in with her i enjoyed every moment
with her and yet
i was still lost and then one day she
decides
that it’s not working for her anymore or
better yet
i wasn’t working for her anymore and she
actually kicked me out
now i’m not gonna lie i did feel some
type of way
i was definitely in my feelings
i didn’t think about the severity of the
situation i didn’t even think about
what was going to come next i was just
so proud in that moment
i just wanted to leave so i went to go
sleep at the taj no actually i went to
go sleep
at the park because i didn’t have
anywhere else to go
again i was trying to find myself in
someone else and i found myself
sleeping in a park sharing a can of
beans with a homeless gentleman
and i could have never imagined my being
homeless at 19 my being homeless in
college
and it was in that moment that i
realized
you can’t find yourself in someone else
now
this didn’t hit me until it got dark my
phone was about to die and it started to
get a little cold
and as a person this was the first time
i could see myself
in retrospect as an adult i couldn’t
blame anyone
i couldn’t even feel sorry for myself i
just had to keep going
and that was hard so the next day i went
to class
i didn’t know where to leave my thing so
i left them with a friend and unable to
do laundry you could literally
smell my socks through my shoes and then
i was so broke
that i would ask my friends for some of
their lunch
now all of this while pursuing my
education
and make no mistake i wanted to finish i
was determined to finish because i
believed
that if i finished that all of this
would be over that the struggle
wouldn’t be so real so i did
i graduated i got that degree i
walked that stage and i felt good
and then i started couch surfing
again thinking that if i finished that
all of this would be over
i still ended up on someone else’s couch
and again i just wanted to be
over i wanted it to be done and i
believed
that something would come of it so i
just kept pursuing my dream
and at the time i thought my only dream
was dancing
so i became a professional i got signed
to a professional talent agency i got to
meet
and work with some incredible people and
it was
awesome the challenge was
i was always broke i could never settle
or get settled anywhere and
i always felt like i was coming and
going and even though i was getting what
i thought i wanted
at the time it was never enough
now during this time i decided to leave
la
and give myself roughly five years to
figure out what area
of dance to focus on couch surfing and
all
and because i had nothing to lose i went
for it all
i became a professional dance educator
a professor i became a touring
adjudicator a published author even an
entrepreneur
and now a public speaker
and after all of this it finally hit me
it’s all just as important
am i being caught up in relationships my
being homeless
am i not trying to give up all help me
to discover the importance of developing
an authentically balanced lifestyle i
learned
an authentically balanced lifestyle was
important it’s
important because it helps you
understand it helps you see that things
will come in part
mental emotional spiritual
even physical it’s learning how to
balance all of who you are it’s
discovering all the things that make you
you
and understanding that everything is
just as important
for example your emotional health
is just as important as your career
goals your career goals are just as
important
as your spiritual health even your
mental health now the key
is learning how to balance it all out so
that you become
your most authentic self even your
physical health it’s
just as important and i’ve learned the
challenge is
discovering what’s important to you
now for me what was important was making
a lasting impact
i love helping people grow and develop i
love seeing people become
versions of themselves that they can be
proud of that they can be excited about
that they can
look forward to to someone else it might
be
going out getting a good grade going out
and
and becoming that high-powered success
that they always envision for themselves
or simply
preparing and and supporting their
family
but i’ve learned that even in all of
that everything matters
you cannot neglect your mental or your
emotional or
even your spiritual health as you aspire
to reach your goals
now i can say this because even am i
wanting to see myself complete
i had to learn i could not neglect
seeing myself in any other area that
i had to include my mind my body even my
soul
again i had to balance it out why
because you’re always continuing to grow
you’re always evolving
so even am i making a lasting impact i
had to learn
how to get out of my own way how to
raise my self-confidence and
how to start believing in myself which
is in fact
a part of self-care
i mean even now i’m in a season of
preparation which i’ve learned
preparation affects every other
dimension of yourself
if you want to be successful you have to
prepare
if you want to go out and get good
grades get a degree
you have to prepare i mean if you want a
hearty lunch
at the end of the day you have to
prepare and what i’m learning is
even as i’m becoming an authentic
version of myself
those expense those dimensions are
always going to expand
and in that god is always going to
introduce
something new there are three
steps to developing an authentically
balanced lifestyle
step one recognize what is important to
you
in recognizing what’s important to you
this simply means
identifying or even discovering what you
desire to see for your life
what you desire to see for yourself and
striving to be bold
in pursuing your goals now over time
i’ve learned
pursuing your goals it it requires
confidence
it requires courage that
even in that you’ll discard you’ll
discover areas
black you’ll discover growth
opportunities now
i’m going to implore you i’m going to
encourage you pursue those opportunities
in those opportunities you become your
most authentic
self which leads us to step two
recognize that you cannot neglect one
area of growth
for the other in recognizing you can’t
neglect one area of growth for the other
you understand that things will come in
part
that each season of your life will
reveal something new within you
it will reveal something new about you
and in that you’ll discover
just how dynamic you are just how
resilient you are how creative how
amazing you are
that you’re in fact not a one size fits
all
and in that this means believing
that you’re enough and then finally
we get to step three recognize it all as
important and recognizing it all is
important
everything and i mean everything that
you experience whether it’s good
whether it’s bad not only is important
to your future success but it
contributes to who you are today
so i encourage you i implore you to
learn to value all of your experiences
because in doing so you become a better
you you begin to see
all of your aspects as valuable and you
become the greatest version of yourself
so recognizing what is important to you
recognizing you cannot neglect one area
of growth for the other
and recognizing it all is important all
while embracing
your story are the three steps to
developing
an authentically balanced lifestyle
thank you