How To Get Work-Life Balance

We all have work-life wobbles, so I'll cut to the chase.

There are two major skills needed to gain and maintain work-life balance:

1. Go from reactor to initiator.
2. Get really good at empowering others.

Usually, when work-life balance is getting wobbly (or you've fallen off the tightrope all together), you've forgotten about these skills (yep, they're skills that you can develop and master!).

First: going from reactor to initiator is about owning where your time is being spent.

This starts with understanding your vision, mission, and values, then getting clear on your?goals and priorities. You have to do this clarity work from?both professional and personal viewpoints. For work-life balance, we've got to take a holistic approach, assign importance and priority, and be ready to strip away the activities, projects, and meetings that distract from what you're here to do.

This level of clarity allows you to re-align with what and who is most important to have the impact and progress that you want in your life overall. You can stay focused on what and who matter, complete the work required, and not be left standing there with six projects complete to 60%, feeling overwhelmed, unhealthy, and underpaid.

Once you've got this level of holistic clarity, you've got to take your calendar and ring-fence specific blocks of time for the activities, projects, and meetings that generate progress and momentum towards your vision. Remember, this has to be both personally and professionally.

We're kidding ourselves if our health is in crisis but we use "work is realllly busy" as an excuse to not exercise most days of the week, track food and water intake, and make sure we're getting enough sleep. If your health goes down the dunny, then what's the point of having had a really busy job that you can't perform in? At the end of the day, we're all replaceable. We've got to take a holistic and realistic view of our goals overall, and make sure we can not only win in the short-term, but win in the long-term, too.

Work-life balance isn't about getting 50/50. Work-life balance will look different for everyone, and will change with different chapters and levels of responsibility that you have in your life. It's essential that you do this holistic clarity exercise every year, or with every major lifestyle change (like having kids or getting a promotion) - whichever comes first.

Once you’ve re-aligned with what and who is really important to having the impact and progress you want in your life overall, you’ve got to get ahead of the working wolf-pack and?ring-fence blocks of time?for what and who really matters, BEFORE?everyone else grabs all the pieces of your day. When you have time protected for what matters personally and professionally, people will pop meetings and catch-ups around around?your protected time, and you actually stand a chance at being high-impact and feeling calm, balanced, and in control.

Because I want personal and professional success, I get very specific about what my time is protected for.

When I do this holistic life and business clarity exercise, I like to articulate my annual, quarterly, and monthly goals - I do this exercise annually. Then at the start of every month, I will articulate more specific weekly goals, and block time on a daily basis for getting those done.

In addition, I've blocked around two hours every single day?for deep work.?Deep work is focused and undistracted concentration on an important or mentally demanding task, that I know is essential for generating the progress and momentum I need towards my monthly and annual goals. Again, this is on a personal and professional basis. I'm very serious about my physical health, and have time protected every single day to walk, gym, box, cycle, and/or practice yoga. If it's not protected and I'm unclear why it's in there, then exercise is the first thing to go when I get really busy or sniff out an opportunity. In fact, it's because I'm so regimented and disciplined, that I actually have time that is free to help others with their work!

Because I have time for deep work and my goals protected every single day, I feel satisfied with who I am becoming and what I am building in both my career and life... Pretty much every single day. Part of not having work-life balance is feeling like you're not having the full impact you need to have, wondering whether you're working on the right thing, or going in the right direction. I don't have to worry about that - because I've already got clarity - and allow myself to be present and focused. Being so productive in my life means I spend guilt-free time with people I care about, can put my phone and laptop away, and be present.

To go deeper into these skills, listen to the episode #20 How To Get Work-Life Balance on ???Apple Podcasts?or ???Spotify.

Second: getting really good at empowering others is essential if you want to leave a legacy you're proud of.

The idea is that you get so good at empowering others to do the work required, so that you not only?achieve your goals?faster,?but you help other people?unlock their potential and progress. When you empower others, you’re scaling and magnifying your impact not only in your life, but in other people's lives, the lives of their families, and the quality of their communities... Extending your impact beyond the product, service, or solution you offer!

Empowering others is a skill that anyone can develop and master, and use with people you know and don't know, people in your team, and people in more senior positions to you (sometimes you have to empower the senior leadership team ??).

So, whether you’re a corporate superstar or lone-wolf entrepreneur, if you want impact, you’ve got to re-think how and when you’re getting others involved in the important work, and how empowered they are to get it done?as autonomously as possible. There is a skill to empowering others, and it rests in being able to influence and positively persuade. Check out episode #20 of High Performance Made Simple to dive in.

?? Tanya

P.S. Also available on?Audible??? ??