Is there such a thing as work/life balance and how do you know when you have achieved it?
Many of us are on what seems to be a never-ending quest to achieve this rather elusive balance between life and work. I honestly struggle to understand what this even means. What if you will never be able to equally balance it? To balance something is to have equal weight on either side and that is simply not consistently achievable with work and life in the 21st century.
To me the very concept is flawed and almost alludes to walking an imaginary tight-rope where you’re wobbling around, carefully putting one foot in front of the other and hoping to god you don’t fall off!
So what if we changed our thinking to a ‘One Life’ approach. We have one life that encompasses work and personal stuff and we make it work for us? For some that will mean working more because it gives them energy. For others that will mean ensuring that they dedicate time to family, friends, rest and other priorities. It’s whatever works for you, fulfils you and makes you happy.
If there was ever a time to shake up this belief it is now. Our world has been completely disrupted and the way we work and live has been turned on it’s head. You now have the opportunity to work out how you can make your life work for you.
There are 3 simple things to do here:
- Identify your priorities for work and your personal life. What do you want to be doing and achieving?
- Create boundaries and understand how you can achieve the above.
- Make it happen.
It’s really no harder than that.
Understand that sometimes you may have to double down in the work space, others you will need to invest more time into life – that’s life! It shifts and moves, it’s fluid and we need to adjust to it. It doesn’t mean you’ve failed and fallen off balance – it means your doing things smarter.
Create a life that is going to work for you and stop putting the added pressure on yourself that it has to be balanced. That’s when you have a higher chance of falling off that tightrope!