Work-Life Balance

We hear so much about work-life balance. Sadguru says, there's nothing like work-life balance. There's only life. Balance is something we have to find.

We can imagine each of us being attached to many strings and being pulled in different directions. And not to forget the strings attached to others that we pull. If these strings were not there, we would already be in a state of attainment or what they call, the Moksha. As we grow older, the number of strings keeps increasing, and life starts getting more difficult. A mid-life crisis is nothing but a stage when a person reaches a situation where the number of pulls gets immensely difficult to handle.

We live in this world guided by the rules defined by this world. Sometimes, we find ourselves in a situation, not out of our own choice. We pull or get pulled in many different directions because we've taken upon us many different roles & responsibilities, as a spouse, as a son or a daughter, as a parent, as a friend, as an employee or an employer and so many more. One has to realize first that to live and make a living, we can't run away from these roles and responsibilities.

So now the question is, what is the balance that we have to find? Balance is both mental and physical. Anyone won't do it because instability in one leads to instability in the other. Thankfully, a movement towards the stability of one also leads to stability in the other.?

So one can say that my work is so mentally stressful that it's affecting my physical health, and therefore my life balance is getting affected. The question to ask is, why is your work so stressful? In my 3 decades of professional life, I've realized that work is stressful mostly when I don't like what I'm doing. Very rarely it's about being overworked or not liking the stakeholders involved in the work. I get most agitated when I'm not able to fulfill my duties because other strings are pulling me in another direction.

What all this boils down to is that our balance or for that matter the lack of balance, is a factor of our inner strength and the strings that pull us or we pull. For the sake of simplicity, if we assume that where we are is our fate, then what are the things that we could do to remain balanced at all times? Here are some that I employ, though I must confess, I do fail many a time:

1) Prioritize your relationships: At a broader level, we should first ascertain the relative importance of different relationships we hold in life because those are the sources of strings that pull us in different directions. Those who truly care for us will always be empathetic towards us and will actually pull to stabilize us against the other forces. Nurturing such relationships require you to employ selfless care and your emotional intelligence (EQ) at all times. As long as your relationships are sorted, you can be assured that there are forces that will help you maintain the balance. But if they're not, you must realize that you're going to remain stressed at all times. One can understand that there will always be some relationships that will remain beyond your control and may lead to instability. One should continue to work on those while being ready to live with them, either because that's your duty or destiny or they are otherwise desirable to live.

2) Plan your days: If your relationships are sorted, and you know which ones will stabilize you and which ones are beyond your control, then it's really up to you to manage through better planning. Known unknowns can be identified and a modus operandi to mitigate can be perfected over a period of time to remain balanced at all times. Planning your days in advance and keeping your stakeholders/relationships informed can go a long way in ensuring stability. In the end, what I've realized is that one can weave professional & personal activities in such a way that one remains balanced at all times.

3) Invest in yourself: One big factor beyond the pulls is your inner strength. The only way to nurture that is by investing in yourself. This will involve knowing the self (SWOT) and working on the weaknesses. Beyond the incremental improvement of the self, one must also have transformational goals that can be game changers.?

Finally, life balance is something that we have to continuously practice by nurturing our relationships, planning & executing our day-to-day goals, and investing in the self. Rest is all a buzzword or fickle of our imagination!