Here’s a question that I often hear from my clients: “Is trying to create balance between my business and my life really even achievable as a goal?” The answer is yes, but of course it is more complicated than that. In this article, I will explain what I mean by work-life balance and how you can strive to achieve it in a way that works for you.
First of all, let’s talk about what work-life balance isn’t. It does not mean that you have an equal balance, with the hours in your day split right down the middle. Your life is fluid and mixing your personal and work lives should reflect that. If you choose to devote half of your time to work and half to everything else, you’re going to end up feeling unrewarded and overwhelmed. Your own personal work-life balance is going to vary greatly even in an ideal world, and often on a day-to-day basis. What works for you today isn’t necessarily going to work the same way for you tomorrow. With changes in your home life such as marriage, children, or even a new career, you will have to adapt and let a successful work-life balance evolve with you.
Work-life balance also isn’t some magical formula or schedule where one size fits all; every single person is going to need something different. We all have different priorities and ambitions, and your own personal balance needs to reflect that. This means that you need to firstly define success for yourself. What does success mean to you, what values do you want to stick to, and how can you make deliberate choices that fall in line with those values? Make sure that you are very clear on your values and priorities, that way you are prepared to resolve conflicts if and when they arise.
With advances in technology and constant interconnectivity via emails and telephones, it is now possible to be connected with the entire world 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. However, this has gotten many people into the mindset that they can no longer separate work from home, and in fact many people are resigning themselves to the notion that they’re just going to be stressed all the time. There is no need to feel this way: having an out-of-control lifestyle where you feel like you are always on call shouldn’t become the norm. Set aside some time each week where you can go “unplugged”, even if it’s for only an hour. It will go a long way towards giving you downtime where you can relax and take a couple of steps back from your work life.
Keep in mind throughout your balancing process that your two lives aren’t going to be 100% separate, and recognize that it’s okay for that to happen. You still have a family when you walk into your office, and you still run a company when you’re sitting at the dinner table. Maybe you get a call from your significant other while you’re in an important meeting; don’t be afraid to step out and take that call. Perhaps one of your staff needs some questions answered while you’re running errands with your children; that’s fine, too. Think of your work and home life as having rotating degrees of emphasis and use that to your advantage. Trying too hard to drive them apart is likely to cause problems.
I will leave you with this last piece of advice: no matter what you define as your successful work-life balance, keep in mind that at its core, every individual strategy should encompass these two objectives: Achievement and Happiness. Achievement is simple enough: what do you want to accomplish, why do you want to accomplish it, what changes do you need to make to get to your goals, etc. Happiness isn’t just putting a smile on and staying positive, though: it’s about your actual enjoyment of life. It involves things like your pride, your satisfaction, and your sense of well-being. Achievement and Happiness go hand in hand, and you should make sure that whatever you choose to do in life, you have both of these qualities.
What do you do to maintain your own work-life balance?
Image Credit
