Work–life in your hands

Posted on 03. Feb, 2012 by Susan Wright in Life Coaching, Organizational Wellness & Work-Life, Personal and Professional Development

Over the years I’ve read and experienced first-hand the challenges of so called work-life balance. I’ll be the first to say – balance is bunk, as I prefer to aim for work-life harmony. Nature works in harmony not necessarily in balance. We don’t mechanically dump aspects of our life and work on a scale and watch intently for perfect equilibrium. To aim for this is a fallacy and not congruent with life as we know it today.

Last week I posted about the 40 percent who don’t employ strategies to manage the complexities of life and work. If we equip ourselves with a few strategies then possibly we can gain some breathing space and focus. I don’t underestimate external factors and systems such as, corporate practices, labour supply, and policies that influence our ability to manage our lives and work demands, but unless we build some personal and professional strategies we may fail to develop resilience, happiness, and meaning.

So let’s look at the hear and now. What are you doing proactively to meet work-life demands; and furthermore, create a life that has meaning and value? First step: Become consciously aware. This requires some reflection, and tapping into some really beneficial skills: listening, noticing, and challenging (through questions that dispel your beliefs, stories, assumptions, judgements) There’s a lot of noise out there – are you prepared to filter it and discover what’s true for you? Did I mention courage? Take a stand and keep your integrity in tact.

As you awaken (this is on-going) you can employ strategies that can affect immediate concerns and continue to build strategies for long term sustainability. To make this less overwhelming, consider your work-life as a renovation project- what do you want to change? What immediate change will make a positive and direct impact? And, what are you willing to invest?

Strategies are created from your initial inventory of questions and general assessment (similar to renovations, find the source of pain – how bad is the leak in the bathroom!) As promised, here are several strategies to help you on your way:

• Personally and professionally get really clear on your values
• Start to view work-life in phases – noting the rhythm and cycles of activities, projects etc.
• Once you’re clear on the above -anticipate and block out your time accordingly and communicate what is realistic and how you can or cannot be present and available.
• Build in buffer-zones
• Build in leisure-time, something in which you experience flow – 10 minutes of Sudoku?
• Align work so that projects and tasks that are important and meaningful to you make up the bulk of your efforts (this isn’t easy given external factors but if you don’t do it, someone else will do it for you!).
• Play to your strengths and gifts – this is the happiness factor.
• Pay attention to how you conduct yourself and communicate with others – interpersonal effectiveness is key to managing your work and life.

The aim is to create a sense of harmony among all the moving parts in your life. There will be unanticipated events, distractions, conflicts, and much more, but when you have strategies in place and access them consistently, you’ll have the resilience and ability to stay on track, live well, and be fulfilled.

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New for 2012, Wright Momentum is offering a seminar  Too Many Moving Parts?Bringing life and business into synergistic action. Ideal for professionals, work teams, and the people you care about. For more information contact susan@wrightmomentum.com

Tags: Strategy, work-life