Work / Life Balance

“We need to focus on work/life balance…” that statement that seems to elude most employees and employers alike. Jack Welch the ex CEO of General Electric dared to say “there’s no such thing as work/life balance. There are work/life choices.” What if he’s right? Yet within our businesses there is so much talk about this work/life balance.

Reality is we’re faced with 1000’s of decisions each day, each one will lead us down a pathway, for better or worse (some might say). We all get 24 hours a day, that hasn’t changed so why is it that we seem to be struggling?

The word balance implies that both areas of work and the rest of our life are separate, and the scales can tip either way by any seemingly small event. We’ve always been encouraged to judge our work and our personal lives this way, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing… if you can bear to live without your blackberry.

However somewhere along the line, what we do for a living has become intrinsically tied to our identity. We are our job and it’s that very reason we find it hard to switch off, even when we are at home with our partner or kids. Our identity and our personality can’t be separated or ‘balanced’ on a scale when at home or at work, it can only be decided.

The truth of the matter is at the end of the day each person is responsible for their own work/life choices. Ultimately if you want your business to grow to the next level or if your employees want that raise or promotion then you’re just going to have to work harder than everyone else around you; that’s a choice.

So what is it that we need to do to achieve this holy grail of work/life balance: it all comes into play when we stay in the moment and align ourselves to make a decision about what we do and who we are. The reality is that life is chaotic, either you work hard to create something remarkable or you don’t.

Make the decision every day to stay in each moment and take a step closer towards your goals, whether it’s a home or at work.