Dear Readers,
I truly respect you for taking the time to read this. It means that you are one of few people taking action about your life. I believe this article can give you few ideas on how to improve on the road to a happy work life balance and I would love to hear to your feedback.
I have been managing international companies for over 15 years in Baltics, Poland and Caucasus. It included CEO positions, investment into green field, mergers and acquisitions; and of course crisis management on top of constantly managing the change. At the time of writing this article I am the father of 6 children with demanding hobbies; I have a consulting business specialising in people development with an active presence in 5 countries; I am a board member of 4 NGOs and the chairman of one of them – and all of that, I have chosen to pack under the skin of one man. I take LIFE BALANCE very seriously.
Work life balance for me is more about life balance. I believe we cannot separate ourselves from work, money and other people. We cannot compensate a lack of one aspect by overdoing on the other.
Nowadays, many professionals claim that they struggle to keep life in balance. There is a lot of stress about what they want and what they have. Often, stress is created by longing for stability. People want a predictable and stable life with a positive outlook. Some people say – I just need to make some sacrifices now and then I will enjoy happy and stable life.
The only stable thing in life, is that change, is inevitable.
We love stability so much that we stop our self-development after 1 year of entering a new job or position. We hate leaving the illusion of stability given by our comfort zone. FACT: Only 20% of people would push themselves to development without external encouragement. There will be more change than ever due to our put pace getting faster and faster – more technology and less borders.
There is and will be no stability. Stability is illusion, while balance is something we can do something about. Indeed, we can talk only about balance. Balance of spending our time in the best possible way and creating balance every day.
To get the concept of a balanced life we also talk about having a vision about your life as such. What is your purpose? Think of your time as your potential. Are you trading it in for something valuable? Or not? Successful people are not talented or lucky, but they are extremely focused. If you cannot focus on your life, then you cannot get it into balance.
I encourage you to evaluate your life in four dimensions (see below). Put your mark on how happy (from 0 to 10). How happy you are about you yourself, i.e. how healthy, smart, happy you are? You and Others – how good are your relations with people who are really important to you – family, parents, friends etc… You and material stuff – how happy you are with your income and things you own? You and your work – are you happy in your job? Do you have a positive career outlook?
Now when you have done that, connect the dots in a line as in the example below:
If the shape you get is round then your life is balanced and it rolls smooth. If however, it’s flat or more like a rugby ball, then it feels bumpy. You cannot compensate health with money or a fulfilling job with a lack of relations with your loved ones. The bigger the shape, the higher you fly and the fuller your life. 80% live their lives as if they were cork floating on a river; they go with the flow and are often unhappy with the results.
“If you want to start living balanced life, you need to take decide that that is what you want”
Make the decision to have a balanced life and then be focused and disciplined in getting that. It is never about not having time; it is often about spending your time in a better way. Your actions always show what is important to you and not your words. By saying, work is important it is not becoming important. It becomes important by focusing on work throughout the working day. The same applies to your family. Are you spending time on Facebook or watching TV or spending time playing with your children? What you do is what feels the most important to you at particular moment of time and you must learn to take responsibility for those choices.
As a management consultants and trainers, I am often asked where to get time. This is not an easy question to cover, though you can start by examining the following: Procrastination, focus and the skill to say “no” with a smile.
Do not procrastinate – do things on time, especially those you do not like doing, but are important to get done.
Be focused (avoid multi-tasking) limit your TV and internet time
Learn to separate important from not important by quickly scanning each task arriving on your table with the question – is it more important that the thing I am doing or about to start doing?
Now I will leave you with this. I would love to know if you can relate!
MV Consulting specialises in productivity increase and performance boosting both professionally and personally. I will be glad to answer your questions or design a bespoke development program for your company. You are welcome to email me at mv@mvconsult.ge or look for valuable ideas on our website www.mvconsult.ge