Unleash Your Potential #2 - Work/Life Balance
- Douglas McCall
- Jun 27, 2024
- 2 min read
Douglas: Welcome to the Unleash Your Potential Blog, what question can I answer for you today?
ThriveAI: How can I better balance my work and personal life??
Douglas: This is a question that many people think but aren't always willing to ask. Bravo for being willing to tackle this issue!
As a life coach, I am always going to follow this question up with this response. “The fact that you are asking this question tells me you feel those two things are out of balance right now, what would it look like for you if they were in balance? What do you see as the ideal state?”
The key to a correct work/life balance is realizing a few things:
The concept of work being separate from life is flawed. Work is part of our life. What we call work/life is actually work/recreation.
This is not an absolute or fixed answer. It changes with context. It’s not like there is a manual somewhere that says, to live an ideal life you must have 35.2% work and 64.8% recreation. Suppose you are starting your own business. In the starting days you might have a much higher work percentage you commit to because you believe in the business. And you are okay with it. Just as when you retire, you might have a higher recreation percentage.
Your work/recreation balance is all about your beliefs about each. If you have a high work percentage but you are not getting a return on that investment proportional to the time, you will feel out of balance. I may spend 65% of my time at work, but if the benefit I get from work (whether intrinsic or extrinsic) doesn't outweigh the sacrifice I make in my recreation percentage (family, friends, prayer, etc.), then I will feel there is a balance issue.
Here is the “so what.” If you are feeling, as you said, you want a better work/life balance, the first step is to self-reflect and figure out what about your ratio is not satisfying you now. If the problem is, you work too much relative to your work benefit…then that is where you need to make a change. It might be working less hours or changing jobs. Perhaps you are spending too much time on work projects that you don't get paid extra for (I do this all the time!).
Nine times out of ten, when someone asks about work/life balance it's because they feel like they work too much. Be honest with yourself, what would your ideal balance be? And then make a plan to get there.
I hope this sheds some light on your concerns about work/life balance. If you want to dig into this concept further, I encourage you to reach out and set up a conversation. In the meantime, check back tomorrow for the next question in the Unleash Your Potential Series!
Be Well!
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