Why You Should Quit Trying to Achieve Work-Life Balance

22 Oct Why You Should Quit Trying to Achieve Work-Life Balance

Work-life balance. I’m sure you’ve heard of it before. Maybe it’s even something you’re vying for in your own life? If so, you’re not alone. In my work as a Career Coach for Rebels, it’s among the top reasons people are looking to create unconventional careers on their own terms. It’s a kind of Holy Grail; a promised land that everyone seems to be aiming for.

But I’ve never loved that term: work-life balance. To me, it implies that your work and the rest of your life are somehow in competition for things like your time, attention, and energy. It suggests that they’re at odds with one another. And that to achieve success in one area means sacrifice in the other. 

I think this is where we’ve gone wrong. You see, your work and your life aren’t separate from one another. Your work is a part of your life.

Imagine, for a minute, that your life like a pizza. (I love using this analogy, because who doesn’t love pizza?) Every slice of the pizza is a different area of your life—from relationships to health, to learning, fun, and spirituality. Work is a slice, too. In fact, work is a HUGE slice, because it’s something we spend approximately one third of our life doing. 

When you envision your life in this way, you begin to see that your work and life can’t “balance.” They aren’t meant to, because your work is an integral component of your life. So I think we should toss the whole work-life balance ideal right out the window and adopt a new approach instead—one of alignment.

With this approach, your work and life are integrated with one another. As in, they’re on the same page. So much so that your work supports your life, and your life supports your work. 

Does this work-life integration sound too good to be true? It’s not. It’s one thousand percent possible, but achieving it will take some effort. Here’s how to go about it:

STEP ONE

The first step involves assessing the areas of your life and asking yourself some deep, introspective questions like, “What does [insert life area here—e.g. work, health, fun] mean to me?” and “What’s important for me to do, have, and achieve in my [life area]?”

STEP TWO

Then, the second step is to review your answers and identify how your desires for your life areas might conflict, contrast, or be working against one another (causing those feelings of work-life imbalance you might be feeling right now). 

STEP THREE

And finally, the third step is a willingness to make adjustments to either your expectations or your environment in order to get your life areas jiving with one another.  

The process to achieve work-life integration may be simple in that it only involves three steps, but closely examining your life may not come easily to you (as you’re probably not used to looking at it under a microscope), and making the necessary adjustments may be uncomfortable and trigger resistance.

But remember this: While we often paint them as such, your work and your life aren’t enemies—they’re teammates. And when you intentionally design your life with that in mind, they’ll be like Batman and Robin in helping you achieve your dreams. 

Published at Joy & Co.