Work Life Balance? Not Really!

At a recent retreat, we had an amazing discussion about work life balance, about reinvention. It was a great discussion and we came at it from different angles but the same conclusions. It takes hard work.

Coming back from the retreat, I have thought long and hard about work life balance. I have spent the last three years taking the opportunity of my work change, of starting my own business, to assure that my balance felt right. But never once in those three years did I really think about it like that, in those terms. I didn't think I was balancing my work and life; I felt that I was reinventing myself.

I took the approach that I would make sure that whatever I do, whoever I work with and engage with outside of work, was enjoyable for me, fulfilling; and that i added that same value to them. I took the approach of not filling every waking hour with work, but promised myself that I would try to un-clutter my life - work less, open real time up for things I have wanted to do; even things that I didn't yet know that I wanted to do.

On the surface, you pay a price - less money, owning less stuff. But you really don't pay a price at all. You gain. In the process of reinvention, (and we do that all the time) we need to stop and assess what is really important to us. Family, personal, work. I did that in various ways - I took a sabbatical, I wrote my two books as a journey of self-discovery. I meditate daily, write my daily journal. I took the time to assess and make it a practice to be self-aware of what really matters. It is a daily practice but it is so important.

One area I have committed myself to this year is to ask and listen to the people I love - family, friends - and to make sure that these pursuits, this reinvention includes them. After all, they are a big part of my priorities…so this reinvention is not a solo act.

Working with that self-awareness brings a confidence in knowing what matters to you. And when you know that, you prioritize and focus on those things. It is simple - they matter, they make us happy, we feel fulfilled, and so it becomes a natural path forward.

I don't think much about work life balance. i think about focusing what matters and pursuing that.

And I feel pretty balanced.