W/L Balance Origin

There is so much emphasis on finding balance in your life. And rightly so. Professional service is a demanding profession and if you aren’t that interested in serving, your career can be brutal. So finding ways of having a professional career and a personal life can feel almost impossible. So what is it, really? Is balance even possible?

Unfortunately, work/life balance isn’t really a thing, but a metaphor. In addition, it isn’t a very helpful metaphor. It surfaced in the 70’s and 80’s to describe the stress that women experienced when they returned to work. They fell into wanting it all right now—career, family and economic success. The problem with the work/life balance metaphor is that it segments life and creates forced choices about how to distribute your time, energy and attention.

A Better Way

The fact is that we do have different worlds. And sometimes those worlds collide, especially when they aren’t integrated and managed.

So rather than fragment your life into unrelated silos, you would fare better to pursue integration. Here are three essentials you need to more effectively achieve a sense of integration in your life.

A sense of Purpose is the overarching element that holds your whole life together. Your purpose describes who you aspire to be, regardless of what dimension you are in. It’s your character, your attitude and your motivations consistently lived.

Priority refers to your ability to order things by moments. There will always be conflicts of importance. With your Purpose in mind, consider immediacy, risk and consequence as you negotiate through the conflicts. While not everyone will be thrilled with your choices all the time, you are responsible for yourself, the choices you make and the people who rely on you.

Flexibility is your ability to adjust and adapt after decisions and plans have been made. Since nothing ever goes the way it is supposed to, be prepared to shift as necessary. When something changes in one area of your life, it ripples into other areas. Just make sure something important to you doesn’t get left behind all the time.

Seek W/L Integration

It’s all about integrating your worlds into one world. You have one life, so make it count. You are multi-dimensional and need all of them for a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment. It’s about integration, not balance.