BALANCING WORK AND LIFE

Posted on July 25, 2009

BALANCING WORK AND LIFE

All too often success is seen in terms of materialistic possessions and financial gains. It is easy to fall in the trap of working long hours striving to achieve a good standard of living but in the process neglecting relationships, self development, leisure pursuits, and personal happiness.

Balancing work and life will help you understand what success means to you and explains how can live your life with renewed vision and purpose. You should make sincere efforts to focus on your true priorities and develop healthy attitude to achieve success in yourself.

As you begin to achieve a better balance in your work and life you will discover new levels of creativity, fulfillment and happiness.

To create a balance between the demands of your work and your life, you need to examine what success means to you. Start by classifying your values, purpose, roles and attitudes so that you have something to measure achievement against.

People often work hard to gain ‘success’ without knowing what success really means.
You may climb the career ladder but are you fulfilled with your work? Do you live a good contented family life? Ask yourself now, when was the last time you achieved AND enjoyed something at work? What about Achieved AND Enjoyed with your family; your friends? And how recently have you achieved AND enjoyed something just for you? We receive different messages about success – through the media, our families and our culture. But ultimately success comes from leading a balanced and fulfilled life.

To define success, start by classifying your values schedule times and think about what is most important to you. Put your values at the centre of your life so that you can retain greater balance, vision and happiness in every area of your life.

Success is an attitude, and not just a set of achievements or financial gain. If this was not the case, then every high achiever would consider themselves successful. But in fact many rich famous and accomplished people have material success but do not actually feel true success or fulfilled. So understand that success is not just found in outer things but is located within yourself. Cultivate success as a state of mind so that you stop chasing false goals and expectations and start living your life focused on what matters to you.

Achievement and Enjoyment are the front and back of the coin of value in life. You can’t have one without the other, no more than you can have a coin with only one side. 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.

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. If nobody pats you on the back today, pat yourself on the back. And help others to do the same.

Your life is like a jigsaw. It is made of different pieces. Ensure that you make time for each important aspect of your life – Your work, your relationships, family, leisure time and self improvement and begin to focus on your life as a whole, then success will be yours. When you encounter success, make sure you celebrate it. Celebration boosts your confidence and helps make success a state of mind.

Recognize, reward, enjoy and share success in yourself with others. Remember that a good work-life balance is achieved through mutually supportive relationships at work as well as at home.

By Rajashree Menon