There’s been alot of buzz about work/life balance recently. From what I read, there seems to be this quest for a perfect alignment of energy devoted to work and energy devoted to other endeavors. I do not believe that such a thing exists. Have you ever played on a see-saw? If you haven’t, perhaps you know what one looks like and can imagine what it would be like. A see-saw is rarely perfectly balanced and if it is completely level it’s because both children are approximately the same size and weight and both are able to touch the ground gently in order to maintain that balance. Phew! alot of work goes into creating that perfect balance, which probably lasts for a millisecond. If it’s so hard to balance a see-saw why do people expect that there should be a balance between their work life and their home life?
Let’s go back to the see-saw for a second and look at this in a slightly different way. When children are having fun playing on a see-saw one end is up and the other is down. Of course, there are the moments when the see-saw is balanced in the middle – brief moments. Maybe that is the way to look at the quest for balance between work and home activities. Sometimes, home gets a little more attention and sometimes work. Instead of striving for a perfect balance why not go for a give and take approach? Understanding that there are instances when scheduling work related activities take priority over home activities as there are times when the home life will be top priority. I believe that when you make peace with that concept and accept that there can not ever be a perfect balance you end up creating your own harmony between the two concepts – work activities and home or other activitiees. Isn’t that what this is really about anyway? Creating a feeling of harmony in your life so that you can do your work and have time for the other things in your life that fulfill you.
