The Tightrope Walk Of Work-Life Balance

The Work-Life Balance Series

Everyone wants more time to spend with their wife, their children, or their friends. Work seems to get in the way of this quite often. Even more so, work tends to consume other parts of our lives.

work and life are like a tightrope walk

Many people have their work-life balance out of whack. It’s one of the easiest things to do. Whether this is due to issues at home (an angry wife) or challenges at work, we tend to mess up one or the other.

The Tightrope Walk Of Work-Life Balance

For years, the work-life balance looked like:

  • Office hours of 9-5
  • No outside communication after office hours
  • Paid vacation with little to no interruptions

Things have changed. The advent of the cell phone has made separating your home life from your work life incredibly difficult.

Your organization knows your number. They also know you carry your cell phone with you wherever you go. A quick tap on their Apple iPhone and they’re put in touch with you.

Great! You’re able to stay in touch with your organization. Until you realize this latest phone call is happening during your daughter’s ballet recital.  Now you have to leave your daughter’s performance and head to the office.

Or there’s the temptation to take a look at your work email while at the dinner table. You think your wife doesn’t notice this but she does. She sees the eyes slant to your lap where you’re typing away a response to the urgent email you just received.

Work has invaded every part of our lives and the invasion is hard to control. Especially since working outside of the office seems so normal.

But maybe it’s not your work life that’s invading your home life. You might struggle with balancing everything going on at home with your work responsibilities.

You bring the baggage from home to work. Every day, you head into the office drained. You complain about little Johnny and his latest problem at school. Maybe it’s a big fight you had with your spouse.

Our lives are an ever-intersecting beast. One we desire to control and balance.

You’re going to feel pulled in every direction but the one you want to go.

Work-Life balance is much more like a tightrope walk than a walk in the park. Understanding this will help you begin to balance your life and have more of what you desire.

In the following series of articles, we’re going to look at ways to have more work-life balance. Throughout the Work-Life Balance series, you will learn what you can do to create more margin and happiness.

Question: What’s your biggest struggle in walking the tightrope of work-life balance? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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