Work Life Balance: Is It Time to Change the Approach?
Work life balance is a concept that measures the time one spends at work versus the time one spends with family, friends or themselves. Most people aim to achieve a healthy work life balance so that their professional life does not overpower their personal life. However, this ideology can sometimes be hard to follow as a person’s personal and professional lives cannot always be termed as two separate entities. Hence, it is time that we follow a more practical model.
Whilst the idea of a perfectly balanced life is appealing, it is also something that is not very achievable. On a personal level, I am not aware of any successful people who feel like they have mastered the work life balance.
We are all aware of what it looks like. Easy going and productive office hours, getting off on time, time for family and friends, no hectic deadlines and being able to focus in the present no matter where you are — work or home. We all know what it is supposed to look and feel like, but do we know anyone who actually has it all figured out like this? Well, no.
The truth is that if one wants to progress professionally and personally, both these aspects will intertwine and overlap with one another from time to time.
What the work life balance notion does is that it sets one up to believe that they have two completely separate and opposing lives that they need to constantly balance and work through. This sets one up for failure as trying to live out two separate lives and balance them is not an easy task. One needs to realize that in its totality, you have only one life and your professional and personal preferences are just a part of it, they are not the entire thing.
The perfect life is not about maintaining balance but instead, it is about congruence. All of us have talents, skills and contributions to make and so, if we align the work we do with those, it only adds to our life as a whole. It does not take away from it. Our life becomes a complete and fulfilled unit, as opposed to trying to balance two opposite ends of the spectrum.
If you work for what you love, it will never ever feel like you are actually working. By trying to create a work life balance and making that your sole focus, you are constantly trying to prioritize the needs of one person over another. That never leads to fulfillment and eventually results in burnout.
This is where congruence comes in. It prioritizes self-understanding. What you want and figuring out who you really are comes first. The highest performers in life are people who are able to integrate their work and family.
At the end of the day, it all boils down to what your goal is and what you hope to accomplish. For everyone, it is different. If I was ever coerced into making a decision, I would choose family hands down. However, in the practical world, this choice does not exist. One has to walk through life and make each moment, each opportunity and each relationship count simultaneously.
You have one life, and you must make it count and live it to the fullest. It doesn’t make sense to waste it in trying to achieve balance!
