Many of us make countless efforts to ‘make work-life balance work’. Same amount of us, are among “thousands of people leading lives of screaming desperation, working long and hard hours at jobs that we hate or at least don’t like, only to buy things we don’t need and to impress people we don’t like.”
An invitation:
Acknowledge the situation you are in. “Certain career choices are fundamentally incompatible with being meaningfully engaged on a day-to-day basis with our important relationships and lifelong aspirations”. Reflect.
Stop looking outside. “It’s only up to You to take control and responsibility for the type of life You want to lead”. If you don’t design your life, someone else will and the chances are you may just not like their idea of balance. Drop the blame game.
Be mindful of the timeframe at which you choose to evaluate the balance. A day is too short; “someday” is far away and may never come. Find the middle ground.
Approach balance in a balanced way. Amalgamate all parts of life –physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual. And to be balanced, we need to attend to all of those areas – not just do pull-ups or take online courses.
Small things matter. Being more balanced doesn’t entail a catastrophic disruption in our life. “Smallest investment in the right places will profoundly transform the quality of our relationships and ultimately of our lives”. Furthermore, they will lead to transformation of the society’s definition of success. From the concept that people with the most money when they die – win, to a more thoughtful and sensible definition of what well lived life looks like being captured in the present moments.
How will you balance your day today?
K.J
Inspired by Nigel Marsh
