Happy Worker's Day

I hope you’re enjoying this special day dedicated to celebrating your hard work and contributions. As we commemorate Worker’s Day, I want to take a moment to reflect on the importance of work-life harmony.

I believe that success is multi-dimensional. It's not just about excelling in your career; it's also about having a fulfilling personal life. I learned this lesson firsthand in 2015 when a major disruption in my relationship affected my career and other aspects of my life. This experience inspired me to help professionals like you achieve work-life harmony.

Before you dismiss work-life harmony as a lofty dream, consider why it's crucial. In today's fast-paced and often stressful work environments, achieving harmony is more important than ever. ?

And before moving any further, be sure to get your copy of my book, THE HARMONISED LIFE that contains 10 critical chapters with proven work-life management strategies for a MEANINGFUL, WHOLESOME and PRODUCTIVE life. Buy from my Website, Roving Heights, or Amazon.

When we think about work-life balance, it's often depicted as a balancing act, like a seesaw, where work and personal life are on opposite ends, and the goal is to equalize both sides by managing time and being more productive. However, this approach is flawed because it focuses solely on time management and productivity, which are not the real issues when it comes to achieving harmony.

The problem with this traditional view of work-life balance is that it reduces the concept to a matter of balancing time between work and personal life. While I focus on the concept of work-life harmony and in reality, it is much more complex and nuanced than just managing time. It's about aligning your work and personal life in a way that allows you to thrive in both areas.

Instead of focusing on balancing time, we should shift our focus to aligning our values, priorities, and goals in both work and personal life. This means understanding what truly matters to us and making choices that reflect those values and priorities. It's about creating a life where work and personal life complement each other, rather than compete for our time and attention.

By shifting our perspective and focusing on alignment rather than balance, we can achieve a more meaningful, wholesome and fulfilling life. It's not about equalizing time; it's about integrating work and personal life in a way that allows us to live authentically and purposefully.

What Is Work Life Harmony?

When digging deep into what a harmonised lifestyle would look like, I’ve found that most people end up describing things like:

• A harmonised lifestyle involves making a bigger impact at work and in the world without sacrificing your personal health or happiness.
• It's about having a positive impact on your children's lives and being present in the moment, with space to think.
• It's also about prioritizing what's important to you, including self-care, without feeling guilty or ashamed.
• It's about having strong boundaries that you feel good about enforcing and letting go of the idea that you have to do or have it all.

In essence, work-life harmony is about creating a life that feels fulfilling and meaningful, where work and personal life complement each other rather than compete for your time and attention. It's about making tough choices that align with your values and priorities, ultimately leading to a sense of contentment.

What You Need to Know (To Create a More Harmonised Lifestyle)

If you want to create a more harmonised life, then you must first understand why work life harmony is important. Because it’s difficult to create something that you don’t understand. Creating a more harmonised lifestyle isn’t easy. It requires you to:

• Prioritize what’s truly important (and drop the rest),
• Take control over your career path, and
• Simplify your life.

And doing these things means making tough choices, which requires courage, mental strength and resilience. I’ve found that, in order for your mind to be willing to make these tough choices, it needs to understand WHY.

Why Work Life Harmony Is Important For Everyone

Before we get into all the reasons why work life harmony is important, I want to make something clear about who work life harmony is for.? Because I find that most people think it’s something only (or at least mostly) women want.

But that’s not true.? I’ve found that men value harmony just as much as women do.? The difference is the language they use.

Women talk primarily in terms of harmony and leading meaningful lives.? Men talk about having time for their priorities and making an impact (both at work and in their family’s life).

When you drill deeper into what those mean, both men and women are saying the same thing: Harmony is for everyone (men and women alike).

5 Reasons Why Work Life Harmony Is Important

Now that we’re clear around what work life harmony is (and isn’t) and who it's for, let’s go through the top 5 reasons why work life harmony is important.

Reason #1: Work Life Harmony Means Less Stress

Workplace stress is estimated to be the 5th biggest cause of death in the United States.? Additionally, a quarter of Americans identify their jobs as their #1 source of stress. The biggest problem is that most people think they have no choice.? But that’s not really true.

Remember that work life harmony is ultimately created through your choices.? That’s also what’s causing much of your stress.? By agreeing to take on more work when you don’t have the capacity or not delegating work that could be delegated, you’re creating more stress for yourself.

Here are the choices that you could start making for yourself to relieve a lot of your stress and anxiety:

• Saying no to things that aren’t priorities.
• Delegating as much as can be delegated.
• Choosing to do things that are priorities (and letting go of non-priorities).
• Prioritizing your own wellbeing.

The end result is a more manageable workload and more time doing the things that are important to you.? That’s going to greatly decrease your stress and anxiety levels.

Making tough choices requires you to create strong boundaries – even at work. You’re only one person and you can only work so much.? Being stretched too thin isn’t going to help you or your employer.

I know that having boundaries can sometimes feel scary (especially since enforcing them means saying no to people).? But it can be done (without feeling badly about it).? Saying no kindly (without guilt) is a skill that can be developed.

Reason #2: Work Life Harmony Will Improve Your Mental Health

One of the biggest reasons why work life harmony is important relates to your mental health.? When you are in living in harmony, you’re more capable of dealing with negative emotions and thoughts.

The human brain isn’t meant to feel stressed-out and under pressure all the time. Creating more harmony in your life gives you breathing space to think, which allows your subconscious thoughts to bubble up to the surface.? And that’s good for your mental health because it allows you to become more self-aware (around your beliefs and thoughts behind charged emotions) so that you can deal with them in a healthy way.? Which means making better, more informed decisions.

Reason #3: A Harmonised Lifestyle Increases Engagement At Work

When employees are happy and feel motivated by their job, they’re more likely to be loyal and engaged.? Being engaged is about feeling committed to something so that you do your best. Engaged employees are involved in, enthusiastic about and committed to their work.

But (according to Gallup) only about 34% of U.S. workers are engaged.

Many employers falsely believe that engagement is created through pressure or incentives.? Although this might work (a little) in the short-term, it ultimately creates stress, anxiety, and resentment.? That’s not exactly a recipe for long-term engagement or morale.

A less stressed, mentally and physically healthy employee who feels connected to co-workers is more likely to be motivated to work harder.?And that increased motivation means that you’re going to perform at a higher level and be more engaged. Even better is that increased engagement results in better workplace morale, more accountability and better communication.

Reason #4: Harmony Makes You More Productive

Everyone wants to be more productive.? In fact, most of my clients cite this as an outcome that they want from our work-life harmony coaching courses.

Contrary to what many believe, there’s only so much benefit that you’ll get from implementing a new time management strategy or productivity hack.? Once you learn how to utilize the basic formulas for better productivity and time management, new strategies won’t help much.

The thing that WILL make you more productive is a better work life harmony.? Think about it: you’ll feel better (both physically and mentally), be more focused and present, and will be able to think more calmly, clearly, and creatively.? Plus, you’ll be more motivated to work hard.?

What that means is that you’re more likely to perform at a higher level.? If that’s not a formula for productivity, then I don’t know what is.

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Reason #5: Work Life Harmony Brings Higher Levels of Success

If career success is important to you (and you believe that harmony is synonymous with settling and anathema to success), then I have good news because. . . Work life harmony will make you more (not less) successful.

There’s a misconception that harmony doesn’t work for those who want to be successful.? But that’s just not true (and it’s based on a common misconception that work life harmony is about settling for less).? Work life harmony is about creating a life of success on YOUR TERMS by:

• prioritizing and focusing on what’s most important to you; ensuring your own well-being (thereby enabling you to serve others to the best of your ability); and
• being in control of your life. Isn’t that what true success is?? Besides, a harmonised lifestyle makes you more well-rounded, a more creative thinker and more productive.? And that means that you’ll have more ability for success in both your personal and professional life.

For these reasons, great leaders understand the importance of work life harmony for themselves and their team.

What Are The Next Steps For Your Work Life Harmony?

Now that you understand the importance of work life harmony, it’s time to start creating the life that you desire, deserve and are destined to have. That is what makes you a leader, a self-motivated leader.

On that note, I want to work with 20 aspiring self-leaders and goal-crushers for the next quarter in my 3month group Coaching, Mentorship and Accountability program starting on Saturday, May 11, 2024. As a self-leadership advocate, my vision is to create a world filled with self-leaders who are achieving personal holistic excellence in al dimensions of life. Join us HERE.

Your Harmoniser In Service

Nkem Chinwe Offonabo - The HARMONISER?

I am a Purpose-Driven Woman on a mission to help busy, overwhelmed and burnt-out professionals and executives achieve Work-Life Harmony.