Work-Life Balance: Why You’re Getting It All Wrong

While a huge percentage of the world embark on a Work-Life Balance quest, very few have succeeded in finding an acceptable definition of the concept and applied it.

Today, there are so many ‘proven’ definitions that will positively impact your everyday value and balance your personal life with work but it is important to first note what the concept is “not” in order to understand and successfully implement the former.

There is no “equal balance”. Trying to schedule an equal number of hours for each of your various work and personal activities is usually unrewarding and unrealistic. Life is and should be more fluid than that.

Work-Life balance varies over time, often on a daily basis. The right balance for you when you start a new career versus when you are getting ready for retirement will be quite different. There is no perfect, one-size fits all balance you should be striving for.

However, at the core of an effective work-life balance definition are two key everyday concepts that are relevant to each of us – daily “achievement” and “enjoyment”.

These two concepts answer the big question “Why?” Why do you want a better income? Why come to work at all? It is both the front and back of the coin of value in life; you can’t have one without the other. Trying to live a one-sided life is why so many “Successful” people are not happy, or not nearly as happy as they should be.

As a result, a good working definition of Work-Life Balance is: Having a meaningful daily Achievement and Enjoyment in each of your four life quadrants: Work, Family, Friends and Self.

At work, you can create your own best Work-Life Balance by making sure you not only Achieve, but also reflect the joy of the job, and the joy of life, every day.