It’s so often that we get stuck between our head and our heart. While one yearns for material wealth and success, the other longs for quite evenings with family, some me time and a peaceful life. This puts us into a constant quest for ways to strike a balance between the two, a reason why the term ‘work-life balance’ has become so popular amongst us today.
In this article, we will guide you through the right combination of things to attain a great work-life balance. However, before we get there, let us talk a little about the basic elements that account for keeping us balanced and how do we recognise which is out of proportion and needs some fixing.
The basic balancing elements
As we spoke earlier, we feel balanced or imbalanced due to two main elements- our mind and our heart.
While our mind urges us to focus on external things such as work, fame, success, materialistic things, social status and more, our heart derives pleasure from spending quality time with our loved ones, fulfilling familial responsibilities, building cherished relationships, satisfying social desires and doing things that we enjoy doing. One is stimulated by intellectual challenges and the other through deep love and passionate desires. One pushes us towards external well-being while the other pulls us towards internal well-being.
The constant tug-of-war between the two makes it extremely important for us to strike a balance and lead better lives.
How to know if you are out of balance?
A missing balance between your head and heart will make you feel uneasy and restless. Though that is the easiest way to find out whether you are in balance or not, here are a few self-help steps to know better-
- Acknowledge your state of mind and how you are feeling.
- Examine the areas in your life that you are placing more focus on or avoiding.
- Assess the components that can put you in greater balance & set goals to work towards it.
- Reflect on your strengths & weaknesses that will help you/dissuade you from working on your goals.
- Prepare yourself to counter your weaknesses, fears, doubts and negative talks.
- Monitor your goals through weekly, monthly & yearly tasks.
With some self-reflection and basic preparation you will be better prepared to start on your journey of striking a balance.
Advanced steps to achieve an excellent work-life balance
Here are some advanced and time-tested ways to keep your head and heart happy without compromising on your career and family time.
- Don’t try to do everything
The race for efficiency and productivity can only get us to a certain extent. After all, we just have 24 hours a day and no matter the tactics we use to ace our productivity during that time, it does have a limit. So, the best way is to respect this fact and understand that we cannot do it all by ourselves.
The art is in setting up our priorities, doing what is most important and letting go of the rest – both at work and home.
- The knack of saying ‘No’ Is it really necessary to say ‘Yes’ to everything – to work that is getting unmanageable; to commitment that can’t be kept; or, to late night events & show-off parties? It’s usually this habit of saying ‘Yes’ just to please everyone which gets us into trouble and disrupts our work-life balance.
Please understand that saying ‘No’ is always an option and there are many ways of doing it without sounding rude. Define your boundaries, demarcate between your work and personal hours and stop trying to please everyone. Eventually people will understand and respect your decision and you will be in more peaceful state.
- Good enough is good enough Perfection is a good thing to aim for but not always. At times, you need to stop chasing perfection and start delegating your responsibilities to others. Empower them and trust them to carry it out efficiently.
Accepting that good enough is good enough and not exert yourself unnecessarily is a great way to maintain balance at work, health and relationships.
We hope that this article will relieve you some stress from your work and personal life. For further help, please connect with certified life and business coach Peyush Bhatia at ______
