Survey of Career Service Professionals – Deadline Extended to November 18
November 10, 2011Conference Sketch: Association of Career Professionals International Annual Conference
December 1, 2011By Ken Keis
Balance: a state of equilibrium, steadiness of the body or emotions
Living a balanced life can be challenging but, many times, our thinking―not events themselves―can cause a perceived imbalance.
Some would have you separate your life into work and personal life, plus many other subsections. Even though these individuals are well-meaning, their strategies put another layer of rules and shoulds into your already busy life.
How do you separate your life into subsections when all the elements are interrelated? I suggest that we don’t have a work and personal life; we simply have a life — period.
What does it mean to live a balanced life? Who gets to decide what is balanced and what is not? In spite of all the external pressures and recommendations, YOU are the only one who truly can evaluate whether you have balance in your life.
However, unless you are intentional about your life balance, your fulfillment and enjoyment of life can be significantly impaired. In fact, work-related stress is costing companies billions in worker absenteeism every year.
Research says that over 25% of the North American population is working more than fifty hours a week. My contrarian comment: What’s your point? Who said that fifty or sixty hours are too many, or that forty hours are better?
Life balance has way more to do with what you are doing and how much you enjoy what you are doing. If you hate your job, ten hours a week is too many and will completely mess up your equilibrium!
When we try to separate work from our “life,” it suggests we are working for something other than the joy of doing our work. If we work for the sole purpose of earning the right to do something else other than work, balance becomes very difficult to achieve.
Balance — feeling emotionally stable — comes from enjoying what you do.I work fifty hours a week, sometimes less, sometime more, but I would feel unbalanced with anything different. My work represents my values, passions, purpose, and talents. Bottom Line: when I am engaged, I feel balanced.
What about you? Does what you do in life contribute to your purpose and therefore support your feeling of being balanced?
Discretionary time is an important factor that contributes to life balance. If your schedule keeps you busy from dawn to dusk, it is nearly impossible to feel balanced.
So how do you strike balance in your life’s equation? Schedule the most important items first—the items that are non-negotiable life balancers for you, no matter what, such as time alone with family, volunteering, playing, staying healthy, etc.
Make sure you have discretionary time to be and do things that make you feel balanced. Research shows that you do need to take time off to rejuvenate, to reflect, and to enjoy. The amount of time you need is up to you.
True balance comes from living your values and playing to your strengths in all aspects of your life. And guess what? Only you can choose what they are for you. Embrace the balance principles that represent a balanced life for you, so you have more wins than losses―more balanced days and weeks than unbalanced ones.
In the end, you get to decide what makes you feel balanced. By definition then, fulfillment infers balance. After all, it is your life!
Ken Keis is President & CEO of Consulting Resource Group, International, Inc., a speaker and author of the “My Source Experience Journal – a Personal Discovery Process for a Passionate and Fulfilling Life” and the new book “Why Aren’t You More Like Me?”