Work Life Balance Tips
Do you ever feel your work life balance is off? The key to living well is finding this balance. You may find one part of your life is going great, but another area is awful. You may even feel like you have it all, but feel confused by the fact you still do not feel happy.
Kids, spouse, career, purpose, relaxation, health–it can feel like you are juggling so many balls. In this situation balls inevitably get dropped. And our culture tends to emphasize success in some areas while ignoring (or even criticizing) others. In our society careers are often our identity. We may be a financially successful culture, but we do not seem to be a really happy culture. Therapists, medications, and rehabs are becoming an accepted part of life.
The area that usually needs fixing is your work life balance. Regardless of your career, it likely takes up a major part of your life. It is very easy for this to take over completely. You don’t want the focus on work to end up distracting you from other important parts of your life. Even if your job is really important, it really just serves two purposes:
–Money to fund the life you really want (live well, be with your family, vacation, etc.),
–You may get a sense of purpose from your work, particularly if it is a passion for you.
It is important to keep your work life in its place. Your work is not really your life…unless you’re a nun. Many people fall into the trap of working hard and putting off living the good life until they have achieved enough or acquired enough money. The trap is: there is never enough.
The time to start living is now, in this very moment. Being present in the moment requires a high level of self awareness. Our culture is not good at this on a whole. You eat, drink, shop, work, etc. all to really avoid anything remotely close to introspection. You don’t want to look in there–it is really dark and scary.
But being aware of your inner needs is critical to developing life balance. You must begin to use your internal compass to tell you when to play barbies with your child, take a nap, or pay attention to your spouse. It is easy for you to stay disconnected–isolation and independence are pillars of our society. Connecting requires a certain amount of vulnerability and openness. But bonding with others is a fundamental key to happiness.
You must also get connected with yourself. Regardless of how much time you spend alone, you probably find yourself totally cut off from your inner world. Your brain will usually override your inner compass with a whole host of things you ’should’ be doing. Even if you do something else, the guilt you feel keeps you from really enjoying it.
When you take away all of the ’shoulds’, you begin to see how effective your internal compass really is. You have to stop ’shoulding’ all over yourself if you hope to ever really find work life balance.
Achieving Work Life Balance
Do you ever feel your work life balance is off? The key to living well is finding this balance. You may find one part of your life is going great, but another area is awful. You may even feel like you have it all, but feel confused by the fact you still do not feel happy.
You probably feel like you are juggling a dozen balls, with your job, kids, spouse, health, etc. It feels as if at any moment you will start to drop some of these balls. While our society emphasizes success in some areas, it neglects many others. Your identity can become the work you do. What good is it to be financially successful if you still feel unhappy. You may find yourself turning to medication, therapy, and rehab to simply survive in this world.
The area that usually needs fixing is your work life balance. Regardless of your career, it likely takes up a major part of your life. It is very easy for this to take over completely. You don’t want the focus on work to end up distracting you from other important parts of your life. Even if your job is really important, it really just serves two purposes:
–Money to fund the life you really want (live well, be with your family, vacation, etc.),
–It can provide a sense of purpose, especially if you are doing something you feel makes an impact.
You have to keep work in its proper place. It is not your whole life, unless you are married to the church. You can easily fall into the habit of focusing on work and putting life on hold until you have reached some career goal. The problem with this is there is always another goal to achieve.
As you are sitting here now, you must commit to start really living. This will require a major shift in self awareness. This doesn’t come easily in our culture. We drink, eat, shop and work in excess to keep ourselves from any kind of contemplation. You may be frightened of what you might find when you take a look inside yourself.
In order to find life balance, you are going to have to be aware of your inner needs. You have an internal compass, and it will tell you when you need to cuddle with your spouse, play with your kids, have a nap, etc. Being disconnected is easy and accepted in our society. Reconnecting with others requires the discomfort of being vulnerable and open. This connection is essential to being happy.
It is important that you also truly connect to yourself. Even if you are alone most of the time, you are probably pretty disconnected to your inner world. When your inner compass is telling you it needs rest, your brain overrides it because you “should” go to the gym. Even if you end up relaxing, you are filled with guilt and cannot really enjoy yourself.
You would be surprised at how trustworthy your instincts really are when all of the ’shoulds’ are stripped away. For true work life balance you must start listening to your inner voice and vow to stop ’shoulding’ all over yourself.