The Myth of Work-Life Balance

People often talk about wanting work-life balance, but I don’t believe it is what they are really seeking; the concept itself is fundamentally unachievable. The notion of work-life balance implies that we have this perfect scale always in sync between our personal and professional responsibilities. It conjures up an image of someone working from home on their laptop with a baby on their lap.

However, many peoples’ concept of what a perfectly balanced professional and personal life looks like often leads to sub-par outcomes, disappointment and frustrations.

Rather than balance, what I believe we really want is the ability to be truly present in our work and in our lives outside work. We are seeking meaningful, uninterrupted, “all in” experiences at each end of the work/life spectrum.

It’s why we designed our culture at AP to offer the freedom and autonomy to achieve results for our clients, attain personal goals and attend to inevitable life issues. For example, we’ve had several team members who have had to deal with an unexpected family illness or death and we’ve encouraged them to take the time they need away from work to focus on that situation.

When one of our team member’s mother fell ill recently, she took days off from work in order to be fully present when her mom had her weekly appointments. When she was at work, she was all in and a top performer. Other examples are employees taking time during the traditional work day to train for a competition or shifting one’s hours to take a class.

In the end, the goal is not “balance” in the traditional sense. Work-life integration is more akin to a puzzle where all the different pieces fit together in aggregate. It’s an understanding that each week might bring different combination of things to attend to at work or in your personal life, but it evens out over time into a portfolio of quality experiences. The important thing is to be as present as possible in the process.

For the next week, rather than going for balance, I challenge you to measure your success at home and at work by the amount of quality, uninterrupted experiences you are able to have rather than trying to find an unachievable balance. I believe you will feel more satisfied and accomplished all around.

This article was originally published on Robert Glazer’s personal blog FridayFwd.com. 

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Robert Glazer is the Founder and Managing Director of Acceleration Partners, a leading performance marketing agency focused on profitable online customer acquisition for high-growth consumer businesses. Acceleration Partners was ranked #4 in Fortune’s Top 10 Places to Work in Advertising & Marketing and has been named a Best Workplace for Women two years in a row by Great Place to Work? and Fortune. The company has also been ranked on Inc 5000/500’s Fastest Growing Companies for 4 years in a row and named to Boston Business Journal’s Fast 50 for three years in a row. Representative clients include Tiny Prints, adidas, Target, Reebok, eBay, Jet.com, The Children’s Place, ModCloth, The Honest Company, Warby Parker and Rent the Runway. You can read his Friday Inspirations at www.fridayfwd.com.