I struggle with the idea of balance that most life coaches teach and often find myself saying:
Balance is the battle cry of the mediocre!”
I believe that people who are striving for balance are striving for the wrong thing. Balance assumes you have limited supply of something in your life – mainly time. I don’t think we should be focusing our energy on time, I believe we should be focusing on energy. Energy is unlimited. Everyone is seeking balance these days. Typically balance is defined as “When I am at work I will work, and when I am at home I want to be at home – away from my work”
Typically people are defining a balanced day as 8 hours at work, 8 hours at home, 8 hours sleeping.
My beef is not with your desire to find a balance between work and play during your waking hours. My beef is where we put their energy during those hours. It frustrates me that while you say you will focus on work at work and play at play, you simply don’t do this. Oh sure, you play while at play, but do you really work, while at work?
For most people “work hard play hard” is a misnomer. Only get half the expression is the reality. Sure, its easy to get the “play hard” right….but be honest, do you really work hard?
How many personal calls do you take at work?
How long was your last lunch with your colleagues, or friends
How much time do you spend gossiping about social issues while at work?
How often do you run personal errands during business hours
How much on line surfing or shopping do you do while at work?
I don’t believe in balance in the traditional sense. I believe in choice and energy management. If I chose to focus my energy at work on work, then I chose to leave my work in the office when I go home. When I focus on work at work, I can focus my energy at home on my family. If I chose to focus 4 hours of my energy while at work surfing the Internet looking for a vacation deal then I have chosen to finish my work tonight after dinner. Every choice has a consequence and its not appropriate for us to ignore those consequences because we want a balance of time in our life.
Do you really work while at work? Being at work, IE being in the office is not the same as doing work. Take notice of where you are spending your energy. You will create a balance in your life if you chose to focus your energy of the appropriate task at hand….play or work.
It’s not right for employees to demand that their employers leave them alone after 5pm when they are spending working hours on personal issues. Just the same, its not reasonable to assume that employees spend no time on personal issues during the day if their employers don’t given them an evening or a weekend off.
Examine where your energy is at all hours of the day. Make choices that will help you naturally create the balance that you want to achieve in your life. Your perfect balance is unique to you. Its about the choices you make, and the success you want to achieve.
Dedicated to increasing youur sales
Colleen