Trying to balance your work life and personal life is quite the trick to master, and I believe it causes more stress and anxiety than it really should.
Some Back Story
At some point in our lives, we have all been sold a bill of goods in regards to having the perfect work and family life balance. In a lot of companies work/life balance is promoted or it should be work-life balance to be more accurate. Where you end up working more than truly having a life, your life becomes work and nothing more.
Alternatively, and I know I fall into this category quite a bit, and that's where I want more time with my family so I am not putting the work in. I want the time to pursue endeavors outside of work and business. So to the detriment of my career aspirations, I spend more time with my kids. Don't get me wrong family time is invaluable and y kids love having me around and going on mini-adventures.
So where is the balance?
Balance is an Illusion
Work and personal life balance is a complete fabrication.
I feel like this is kind of by design to have control over people's lives. Now I know what a few of you are going to say "but Rob my company truly cares and provides us with <insert goodness here>." And this could be true, this isn't a reflection of every single work environment or business. The idea of having this balance has been sold to us for a really long time now with promotional corporate videos and sales pitches, and how people get recruited into businesses to earn extra cash.
This bill of goods has been sold to us and we strive for it as it is the perfect thing we are looking for. The problem here is we stress over trying to make it happen and we aren't present either at our job because we are thinking about personal life or we aren't in our personal life because we are thinking about work. Some people are able to blend these lives into one seamlessly and I kinda envy them for that as it is the closest thing to actual balance there can be.
The rest of us live out of balance and for prolonged amounts of time usually. The scales are always going to be tipping one way or the other, and they won't swing back until you take the time to swing them or that life requires them to swing back the other way.
The trick to "balance" is knowing when we've spent too much time on one side or the other, and when we need to swing it back. This is especially true if you spend too much time on the work side of the scale as your family and friends will suffer and not to mention you will end up burnt out. Being able to work for prolonged periods of time isn't bad so long as there is adequate downtime that follows, it's a lot of the reason that people "live for the weekend."
Nothing really wrong with this concept especially for people who have jobs/careers that they put in 60hrs+ per week on. Getting to the weekend is where they can let loose and have some fun with friends and family. I guess the catch with the "live for the weekend" crowd is they also have the time in the evenings to be doing stuff as well either for a side business or to spend some of that time with friends and family. I know I am guilty of this as much as the next person so definitely zero judgment here.
I hope you enjoy this as much as I do.
Ride Hard and Live Long.
Sincerely,
Rob Hicks
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