Work-Life Balance: Myth or Reality
This is one of my favourite questions: is work-life balance a myth or reality? Can you have a work-life balance? And what work-life balance really is?
Some argue that it is a myth. There is no way you can have a balanced life. Something always takes more effort and attention when another area of your life is on the back burner.
My opinion? My opinion is that everyone creates their version of work-life balance.
Everyone decides what work-life balance means for them.
I need to clarify the word balance here. It doesn’t mean “equal”. It doesn’t mean that we work the same amount of time as we play. Or the same as how much time we spend with our loved ones or the time we give to ourselves to explore what we enjoy doing.
Balanced means deciding what is important for you at this particular time. This season, as you may have heard some people say. We go through the seasons in our lives just like the seasons in nature. In Sydney, where I’m based, the seasons are not as dramatic as in Europe or some parts of the US, but you get the point.
We need to rest and recharge (winter), then we prepare for our work (spring) and we have time where we work (summer), so we can harvest what we worked on (autumn). Some even say that women go through the season within a month!
What’s important here is to understand that nobody can tell you how much you’re supposed to work and what’s a good amount of time to spend with your partner. You decide.
This decision and definition of your work-life balance come together with understanding what success means to you, and we talked about this in a different article/video. I have a whole chapter on success in my book, A Tiny Book of Joy, and it’s the first chapter you can download as a gift from me to you.
When you understand what success means to you and if your driver is creativity, time, challenge or giving back, it will be easier to decide how a work-life balance looks for you.
If time is what drives you and what’s important to you in your life is your family. Then working less and spending more time with your family will be more attractive to you than any amount of additional money that you can make by working more.
You will feel that you always need to do something creative even if you pay your bills with a different job if your driver is creativity. And if you don’t do this, just like I didn’t do for a long time, you’ll find yourself disturbed, irritated and even angry. Your life will be in disbalance. I felt it so much.
As soon as I feel irritation and have this unsettling feeling inside of me, I know that it’s time for me to pick up my watercolours and paintbrush and paint something. Anything.
The more regular painting sessions I have, the calmer I am, and the more productive and easier things flow with work for me.
You decide what kind of balance you will create in your life. If your health requires your attention now, then your balance will be shifted towards getting better, and that’s totally normal. This will be your version of work-life balance for now.
Taking care of yourself physically is crucial if you want to feel good. If you currently don’t have any physical practice, think of what you can do. You can start with a simple stretch in the morning, a walk during your lunch break or after dinner.
You can dance a little bit or try a simple yoga practice. This one is one of my favourite morning yoga sessions with Tara Stiles. And it’s only fifteen minutes.
You most likely know what to do if you feel that something is missing in your life. Something that you’re longing for. Look at what you value and then check if your day-to-day life reflects what you value. And if not, how can you bring what’s important to you into your life?
Let me borrow Lavendaier’s slogan: You’re the artist of your life. You get to decide whether or not work-life balance is a myth or reality.
To me, it’s a reality.
Olya
“The key to balancing work and life is finding something that you love to do, and making it work for you”
~ Marissa Mayer
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