Stop Chasing Work-Life Balance
Do you strive for work-life balance because you believe equal time on both work and life is how to feel fulfilled?
I understand why you think this because this has been ingrained in us as a society that that’s what we need.
In fact, the disappointment you feel in yourself that you can’t sustain balance all of the time can erode at your self-trust and you may just give up on it and swing fully into one or the other, against what you truly want. Complete balance isn’t attainable.
If you continue to strive for balance, you will continue to be disappointed in your results because the expectation of ‘balance’ is unrealistic.
Let me ask you this… Do you balance your work and life time during the loss or serious illness of a loved one that is close to you?
Do you balance work and life when you are on a deadline at work or on a work trip?
Of course you couldn't balance everything because you had to focus on your loved one or the work at hand.
So why are you striving for balance between work and life all the time? Clearly fulfilled people who feel good about both the amount of time that they spend on work and life aren’t balancing it.
So what do fulfilled working people do? They strive for work-life integration. How do you do that? You make room for both to exist in a way that feels supportive to you in your day-to-day.
You design your work and life to integrate with one another and allow it to ebb and flow but keep checking in with how its feeling to ensure one doesn’t take over the other. You put systems, processes, support and accountability in place to keep your work and life habits supportive of one another. You also have healthy boundary conversations regularly when limits are being pushed.
So do you want to keep striving for work-life balance and continue to disappoint yourself? Or are you ready to set up a work-life integration structure that helps you feel fulfilled and alive?
DM me the word TIME to get my Take Control of Your Schedule Cheatsheet to get started.
