“Work-Life Balance” is something people have been debating for a while now. With day jobs not looking as traditional as they did even 25 years ago, we’re striving for a new normal that’s been defined as a “work-life balance”. More people work from home and are self-employed than they have been in the past. Because of that, there are blurred lines between where our work hours begin and end.
While we’d love to tell you there’s a magic formula to have a perfect work-life balance, that’s not true. To clear the air, we thought it would be fun to put together a few myths and tricks to strive for what you’re actually looking for instead. Fulfillment in both your career and personal life.
3 Myths Debunked About Work-Life Balance
Myth #1: The idea that “balance” is something to strive for in the first place.
Balance is a myth in and of itself. What we should be aiming for is alignment. Your work life and your “human” life should equally align with your goals, core values, and passions.
Myth #2: We can have it all.
We certainly want it all and there’s nothing wrong with that.The reality is you’re unlikely to have it all at the same time. If there’s one thing we’ve learned in our entrepreneurial journey, it’s that “all” is fluid. Your definition of what “having it all means” is constantly changing.
Myth #3: Achieving “balance” will make us happy.
That’s a big, fat NOPE, friends. Once you accept balance is pretty much a made-up metric, you get to decide what will make you happy in the end. Lose the label and define it for yourself.
6 Tricks for Alignment to Find Fulfillment
1 – Create office hours and ask your friends and family to respect them. To do this, you have to respect the hours you set as well.
2 – Time block. Batching tasks and giving each minute of your day a purpose is a great way to stay on track so you don’t work all the way till bedtime.
3 – Use a mix of paper and digital planers in a way that works best for you. For example, set notifications using your digital calendar with reminders of things you’d otherwise forget.
4 – Start your day off right! Find a morning routine that works for you. For example: wake up, do yoga, meditate, make coffee, drink coffee and journal, write your to-do’s, and set an intention.
5 – Make an intentional choice to walk away from the laptop when it’s time to be done. GO BE A PERSON and spend time with those that matter to you.
6 – Digitally co-work with your biz besties. Or, if you have the ability, meet up with them at a coworking office or coffee shop once each week.
Bummed that we broke the work-life balance myth? Don’t be.
If anything, we just allowed you to give yourself grace with an expectation that’s unrealistic anyway. The “balance” is whatever you make it to be. Working 12 hour days might be an essential part of what you need to launch a huge product this month.
Nothing is permanent. Whatever “balance” you need right now will be different in one month, one year, one decade, and so on. Accept that you are doing the best you can do in any given moment and you’ll find the fulfillment you’re looking for.
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