Do You Need Ideas For Balancing Your Work With Your Life?
By Melissa Heisler
We feel obligated and sometimes enslaved to our work. Surveys are showing people feel the need to respond to messages and emails after they leave the office. The result is life—family, fun, hobbies, relaxing, self care—is put on the back burner. Children’s games and performances are missed due to work meetings. We miss out on being there for our children as they grow. We also feel left out due to missing so many family functions. The struggle to serve our job often affects our relationships, as friends and spouses play a far second to our jobs. The end result is more of us are working instead of really living.
The result is not just lack a personal satisfaction with life but major health issues including burnout, fatigue, lack of sleep, digestive issues, immune deficiency, and other work-related stress issues. A recent study at UC San Francisco shows that chronic stress is now also linked to a decrease in a woman’s lifespan.
The answer to work-life balance is not creating more hours in the day, learning productivity tools, or adhering to a specific ratio of work versus life hours. The power to create work-life balance is not in execution but in defining what a successful life means to you, then having the courage to live by your own rules.
Define Work-Life Balance for You
No one can tell you what work-life balance looks like. Sheryl Sandberg focuses on work more than I do, but she is happy. Another high level executive, Stacy DeBroff dramatically changed her career strategy. On another extreme, being a carefree trust fund baby does not attract me as I feel a need to create and contribute to society. Work-life balance is not one universal formula but a unique model for each one of us.
Take some time to really look at what you value in your career, family, free time, home, friends, and community. Don’t just look at the physical facts in your life, but instead look at how you want to experience your life. Don’t just look at the hours you work, but look at how you want to feel during those hours. Really define how you would like be during each part of your day. How do you want to appear? Who do you want surrounding you? What do you want your life to feel like?