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Leisure Is As Important As Work

Guest post by: Peter Nicholls

Article Overview: Leisure is no longer a dirty word in business. In fact its part of a new human resource trend to improve business productivity. Leisure has been out of favour since the Industrial Age work ethic killed it off generations ago as "a waste of productive time”. There's at least five good reasons why it's back in vogue.

Leisure Is As Important As Work

It's popular to have what's called “A Big Hairy Audacious Goal(BHAG)”, a goal so big that others might think it is totally outrageous. Having professionally observed human behaviour in leisure for almost 40 years, my BHAG has long been:

“As many people in the world as possible to realize and apply the fact that leisure is as important as work in maximizing one's personal growth, development and potential”

It certainly isn't as outrageous a goal as it was when I first established Work Leisure International in 2003.

What is 'leisure'? First, it is not simply 'free time'. Leisure is a positive state of mind, produced from enjoying any freely-chosen interest - physical, mental, or spiritual - pursued purely for its intrinsic benefits, that makes you feel good about yourself.

For those who say their work is their leisure, no matter how much you enjoy your work it is driven by economic demands. While I love my work, my main leisure interest is singing. The benefits that singing has given to my total wellbeing, work productivity, stress management, work/life harmony and self esteem are positively incalculable.

It also demonstrates why I believe in work life harmony rather than work life balance. It's not a matter of how much time you give to leisure but the effects of a passionate leisure interest. A short time each week of experiencing this sort of interest can energise your whole week. In the right circumstances it can even turn your life around. I speak from personal experience. Some years ago I joined a choir during one of (for me) life's bad patches. I had to be nagged by a friend for a while before I agreed to join. I now owe a huge debt of gratitude to that friend and the choir still gives me my weekly emotional energy 'fix'.

For generations now, the traditional work ethic has driven human development. Managers saw leisure as a waste of good productive effort and even a competitor to work. Five major factors have altered that attitude:

1) the dramatic social revolution of recent decades,

2) the new type of workforce generated by that revolution, who work to live rather than live for work,

3) the rapidly rising rate of burnout and stress-related injuries as a result of prolonged excessive business stress and pressure,

4) the change from centralized knowledge in the hands of top management to decentralized knowledge and expertise across the organization/the globe, and

5) the disappearance of the principle of the employer providing "a job for life".

People now make their own minds up about the nature of work and leisure. Leisure is again back in vogue as a valued feature of life.

I call it a new Life Ethic, accentuating the fact that work and leisure are both important in maximizing personal growth and potential. Many other factors come into the mix as well.

Not only is my Big Hairy Audacious Goal situated at the core of my business, the increasingly enthusiastic responses I am receiving globally are demonstrating I might just be on a good thing.

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Article Tags: balance, energy, human resource, leisure, life, productivity, work



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