Life Balance
Carol Belanger knows a lot about life balance. As the owner of Creative Cruises By Carol, she has made it her job to help clients find balance for themselves by helping them get away from it all. But Carol also knows about life balance from personal experience. As a young mother, she balanced raising children, managing a household, and running various businesses out of her basement, from a beauty shop to a stint as a wedding cake baker.
To this day, Carol manages to keep a number of plates spinning. In addition to owning a highly successful business, she regularly visits her 91-year-old aunt in a local nursing home. Carol helps out her daughter and daughter-in-law, one is raising teenagers and the other is expecting twins. She volunteers regularly in the community and enjoys the quality time she spends with her husband of 44 years. Somehow, she balances all of these commitments while dealing with the physical impacts of fibromyalgia.
A long-time resident of Oswego, Carol has been a member of the Oswego Chamber for 10 years, having previously served as Vice President and Secretary of the Chamber Board. We sat down with her to talk about life balance from her perspective.
With all of your commitments, how do you keep it together?
First of all, I am constantly working on life balance. I begin each day with my faith and the belief that everything will work out the way it should. I do start each day with a plan. And then, I let go of it. I concentrate on my job, which is to work on myself and try to serve others. When the day looks nothing like I had planned, I go with it.
In your business, how do you help people who seem to lack life balance?
When you work with people, it can be easy to get caught up in their concerns. For example, when a customer calls me in a panic, my focus is to validate their concerns but not get wrapped up in their emotions. I assure them that the situation can be resolved, and I have the expertise to know what to do to solve the problem.
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You said that you continue to work on your life balance. How do you know you have it and when you don’t?
We all have an inner sensor that lets us know when we are off balance. For most of us, it’s in the gut. If we don’t listen to that inner sensor, eventually something will shut down. It could be our body, our business, or even our home life. The important thing is to pay attention to that signal that something is off and take action before things really start to fall apart.
What is your advice to people who struggle with all of the worries and concerns that throw them off balance?
I think the questions to ask are whether this will be important tomorrow or next week, and if we are making a big deal out of nothing. People put so much energy into worrying about things they either have no control over or that most likely will not happen.
What do you think people can do to start on the path toward achieving balance?
They should look at each thing that is dragging them down and ask if it is something they can do anything about. If not, let it go. They should put their energy on what they can control and trust that everything else will be handled.
Creative Cruises By Carol is a highly successful full service travel agency in Oswego, with an emphasis on the vacation experience. To find out more about Carol or to plan your next vacation, contact Carol at (630) 554-1216 or visit www.cruisecreators.com. |
