To Achieve Work-Life Balance You Would Have to Work More!

If you paint an incomplete picture you are missing the whole picture. How often are we asked to make daily decisions with incomplete information? All the time. When we make partial statements and make decisions on incomplete information we are sure to get unintended consequences. For example, work smart not hard or industrial arts isn't as important as college prep, and today's topic work-life balance. I say we can't work smart unless we are working hard. Now that we removed industrial arts from the schools we have reduced the number of carpenters, plumbers, and automotive technicians in the work place.

Work-life balance from a practical perspective doesn't make sense given the amount of time you and I have in total. We get 168 hours each week and 8,736 hours in one year. Even if you are a workaholic you can't possibly have balance. You will have more time to yourself than you will at work. If you are a workaholic and you work 80 hours each week for 52 weeks you will have worked 4,160 hours in one-year. But, you would have over 4,500 hours for your personal life in a year's time.

Indeed.com states the average American worker only works 34.6 hours per week. This means the average American worker works almost 1,800 hours per year. This leaves the average American worker with more than 6,900 hours for their personal lives. What does this mean? Our personal lives are a greater stressor than our work lives? What are you really doing with your time?

Going strictly by the numbers it would mean the average American worker wants work-life balance but to get what they think they are saying they want would require that they work more hours rather than less. But that doesn't seem to be the outcome they are looking for. We keep hearing how 4-day work weeks are vital and effective. It seems to me the average American worker doesn't mean work-life balance at all. It appears as though they mean work-less and get-more. Where and who does the more come from? We latch ourselves onto the latest clichés and play follow the leader, make our voices heard, and think it is our jobs that stress us out the most. Do we even know what we want? What if work provides you with more peace of mind then working less? I am going to say it appears as though our personal lives are the greater stressor than our work lives.

Let's look at all the strife, discord, division, and lies we have undergone in American culture the last five years. Yes, I said five instead of three because I don't want Covid to be the focal point or the culprit. Covid just may have been the final blow to the sanity of our culture but it definitely wasn't the cause. You don't have to look far to see that birth rates are declining, life-spans are declining, suicide rates are climbing, depression is overburdening the masses and jobs have been in plenty for 15 years or longer. Don't like one job you can move to another. It has been an employees marketplace for a long time. Yes, work can cause stress. Yes, work can seem hard and long. But the bottom line is, if we don't get our relationship with God right our relationships with others and our work won't be right either. The stress in most of our lives is the undo stress we place on ourselves by striving to fit into a dysfunctional culture rather than creating a culture of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, and self-control. We think working less will cause us to have less stress. This isn't what the data suggests at all.

For some God is at the center of our lives. Of course even those who call themselves Christian are imperfect, but their target should be love and perfection. For others work, relationships, cars, houses, clothes, status, self, and position are at the center of their lives and their target is more, more, and even more. Maybe the target we have in our lives causes the most or least amount of stress and pressure?

If you want to work less but you keep the same expectations you have when working more causes you even greater stress. Perhaps it isn't work-life balance we need. What we need is the right relationship and target at the center of our lives. Our targets (expectations/goals/desires) can add to or take from the chaos and stress of our lives regardless of how many hours we work.

Most Americans want better and more rather than contentment. Too many of us are looking to be safe and secure and that is not 100% in our control. Some seek safety and security in their money, relationships, work, religion, and various other things readily accessible. But godliness with contentment is great gain. We didn't bring anything into this world, so we cannot carry anything out either. Will we be content with food, clothing, shelter, and good friends and family? Those seeking the things in this world are finding that even in luxury and riches people don't find contentment. All we have to do is look at the number of wealthy and famous people who died an early death or chose suicide over a rich and famous life. Nothing wrong with having things in our life. But are you content? If you are the targets in your life will look different than those of the discontented.

Let's look to love God, love our neighbors, and love ourselves. This will make for a Work-Life Blending that will taste as sweet as it comes and then we will find contentment. That is really what people are really looking for but few are sharing with them the complete picture.