Tweet

Work-Life Balance

Written by: Stephanie Lindell

Article Overview: Are you giving your ALL to your company, or is your company becoming all that you really have?

Work-Life Balance

What exactly is ‘work-life’ balance anyway? How can we really balance our all-important careers with those leftover few hours of the day? Can we really expect to give as much of our precious time to ourselves and our families, as we do to our all-important careers? After all, our career is more than what we do, it’s who we are; it’s the symbol of what we believe in, it identifies us to total strangers and explains what we have spent most of our lives working towards, not to mention our monetary worth and social status. Especially when it’s a business we have nurtured all on our own. Ultimately, it’s what makes us happiest… right?

For most of us, things got out of alignment somewhere along the way. Maybe you can pinpoint the exact moment – when you went from majoring in English Lit because you passionately loved to read, to majoring in English Lit because it looks great on your undergrad record when you apply to law school, and everyone knows that’s where the money and prestige really are – or maybe you really did start out loving your job, and somehow your life got lost along the way. Take heart, you are not alone – nearly 50% of America answered “unsatisfied” when polled about their job satisfaction. And close to 25% of American workers identified with the “just showing up to collect a paycheck” bracket. Sound familiar?

The good news is, it’s actually easier to change the balance and perspective of your life than it is to pack up that sawed-off shotgun and eliminate irritating employees. And it’s certainly much more rewarding – and less messy!

So what exactly does a balanced life look like? Simply summed up, having work-life balance means you view all major aspects of your life (career, family, spirituality, personal happiness, short-term and long-term goals) from approximately the same distance. Meaning, 99.9% of your energy does not go directly to lying awake at 3am worrying about what direction your marketing team should go. Does this mean running a business will never be stressful? Absolutely not, my friend – most likely one of the things that led you to branch out as an entrepreneur in the first place was your love of problem-solving and delivering solutions - but if your life is pretty balanced overall, you probably have some extra energy banked for those periodic stressful blips. At the very least, you will have the invaluable addition of perspective in your life – enough to realize WHY you are at times going through rough patches, WHAT you are getting out of the experience, and HOW it is enriching your life overall.

This balanced perspective is key. Many of my coaching clients came to me because of frustration with their lives, and almost 99% of them think this frustration can be traced directly back to their own particular brand of 9-5 grind. Sometimes, they are correct, and you may be too – but hold off on selling the company just yet. The first piece of coaching advice I always give, is “stay put”!! If we don’t take the time to dig deep enough into the meat of our whole, balanced lives, one more job change probably isn’t going to do the trick.

Staying put gives us the opportunity to sit back and evaluate some very important elements in our lives, all of which need to be addressed to maintain balance and happiness. Again, perspective is key – together with my clients, I seek answers to these essential questions: what is the bigger picture? What are you doing on a daily basis, how does it fit in with the larger pattern of your life, and why have you chosen to allow this particular scenario enter your life?

The truth is that the sweat and tears required to own your own business often obstruct the deeper truths… making it easy to forget the deeper meaning and purpose of your life. When I ask my clients to introduce myself to who they really are, many of them have buried those answers under the labels “successful business-owner”, “entrepreneur”, and “hard-working”.

As the coach of a hard-working, self-employed individual, I am thrilled to hear about such qualities – to the extent that they benefit my client directly in what he or she wants to do. But to anyone who wants to step back and shift their perspective towards a more balanced life, I demand you dig deeper!

• Passion – what is it in life that makes you really tick? What is the source of your drive to succeed in this particular business?
• Paradigms – what belief-system (possibly antiquated!) are you still subscribing to? How is this old paradigm helping or harming you in your current life? How can we reshape and build new, more healthier paradigms where you can thrive and grow?
• Boundaries – setting energy and emotional boundaries are an integral part of self-care, just as delegating is an integral part of running a business. Many times fear leads us as business-owners to try and maintain control of ALL aspects, and with that control comes responsibility – often at unrealistic levels. Where you can set boundaries on your time, energy, and daily responsibilities to help balance your life?

Exploration of these issues, and more, are what contribute to a balanced personal life and career. If you would like to explore your own work/life situation further, visit Stephanie online at www.celebrateyourlifecoaching.com.

Related Articles
  WorkLife Flexibility Primer: Tips on Making it Happen
  WorkLife Serenity: Cold Turkey Style
  What is flexible working anyway?
  Life Balance What Is It
  Lessins Lessons for Life Balance

Article Tags: 3am, alignment, balanced life, career family, exact moment, family spirituality, heart, job satisfaction, law school, life career, marketing team, paycheck, personal happiness, perspective, precious time, prestige, running a business, sawed off shotgun, term goals, work life balance



Related Forum Posts
Re: Sources of Cash - Thanks for the help. The items will be recorded in the Balance Sheet. But why does the Balance Sheet always balances. Is there a specific reason
Re: Sources of Cash - Thank you for guidance and direction. Is there a simpler way of understanding the Balance Sheet and all the components that are to be recorded.
Re: Getting *back* to the next step - Take time out to enjoy life, family, friends before you get back to the 'next step'. I know a lot of people can lose focus on the task at hand by taking a break, but balance is key. Balance is integral to maintaining overall success in business and life!
Re: Balance - Make time for things you love - Balance in life is important, and one generally is more productive work wise when they take the occasional break to smell the roses or read a book that has nothing to do with work but is just for enjoyment. A little time spent with the family is also a worthwhile pass time. MichelleJ
Re: Balance - Make time for things you love - I agree to the importance of balancing a person's life. I know several people who seem to think that they were just put on earth to "bring home the bacon" and they'll do it at any cost. As a result, many of their marriages have suffered and children have been almost neglected. We once had a great guest speaker at one of our teacher in-services and he hit this very hard, as teachers tend to easily fall into the catagory of Live Off Balance; especially those that also coach. I will never forget his valuable motivational speech and have tried to keep my life balanced ever since. I look forward to checking into this subject futher and going to the links mentioned when I have more time. That's for letting us know about it.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Do You Pretend To Listen To People?

How to Develop Your Powers of Thought.

Avoid Burnout: Do the Limbo Regularly

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.