***Creating A Healthy Work-Life Balance

I can’t tell you how many times I have had clients who were so completely absorbed in their work that they had lost sight of the rest of their life. As you can imagine, the results are not good for personal, professional or spiritual health. The challenge for anyone like this comes in striking the right balance of time devoted to work and time devoted to the rest of your life. In this article, I want to take on that challenge by exploring why people tend to go awry in their work-life relationship and how anyone can incorporate their career into their life in a way that compliments rather than overshadows the other components of their life’s dreams.

There are a number of reasons why people find themselves devoting all of their energies to their career while neglecting the rest of their life. For many people, the reason is that they have been told that succeeding in their line of work requires sacrificing everything else. It’s not uncommon to hear speakers tell their audience at business seminars that they should be devoting 80 hours minimum per week to their work if they want to succeed. This mindset that the likelihood of success can be measured by the amount of hours you put in is so common today. And just plain false.

Of course starting your own business requires a great deal of effort as does moving up in your career of choice. But if you want to be successful the first question shouldn’t be to ask about how many hours you are devoting to your work. Rather, the place to begin is by asking how efficiently are you using your work hours? Out of those 80 works hours, how many are quality hours where the individual’s brain is functioning at peak capacity, their energy level is high and they are emotionally engaged in their tasks? For most people that follow the 80-hour workweek schedule, the answer is very few. When my clients find themselves in this position, I have to show them that diverting some of their energy back to other parts of their lives often makes them better able to take advantage of their work hours. So finding a more even balance between work and other life components actually makes them better at their job.

A second reason that people often channel too much of their energy into work is because they feel that they need to do so to meet their financial obligations to their family. The answer here again has to do with efficiency, but not in quite the same way as the previous case. Often times it’s important to look at the effects of the parent’s absence on the family. Bringing home the bacon is important, but spending time with your family isn’t a luxury – it contributes to the growth and wellbeing of each member of that family. In the long term, you’ll find that it’s much better all around to find ways to cut costs that just don’t add to your family’s life. Do you really need cable TV? Heck do you need a TV at all? Go through your budget and your expenses and cut where you can. This will reduce your financial burden and allow you to spend more time with the family. An evening spent reading to the kids or playing with them in the park is healthier for them, de-stressing for you, and doesn’t suck the cash out of your wallet.

Finally, in some cases, I’ve found that people channel too much of their energy into their work because they’ve discovered their dream job. These people become so excited, so enthusiastic about doing what they love that they forget that there is more to their life than their work. This case is a bit like an addiction. Their job provides a rush – they feel alive when they are at work. Most people would kill to have a job like that, so where’s the problem?

There are a few worries here. The first is burnout. If you’re pouring your life’s energy into your work without doing anything to replace that energy, there simply won’t be much left of you in a few years. There are all sorts of physical consequences that you can experience here - energy lows, postural troubles, decreased sex drive, accelerated aging, and the list goes on. But the burnout can be psychological as well. The mind needs a break now and again too, and without giving it a proper rest, the job that you once loved can turn into a nightmare. Diverting some time and energy away from work can mean that your love affair with your career is a long lasting relationship, rather than a short fling.

Second, if you have a family and you’re in this position, you’re falling prey to the same mindset as the previous case I discussed – you’re forgetting that your contributions to the family need to extend beyond simply the financial, and that those same extra-financial contributions affect your health and wellbeing as well as the other members of the family. So spend some time with your family. As in the other case, you’ll find that everyone in your family is happier and healthier and in turn, you’ll approach your work more efficiently.

If you found that one of the scenarios I described above sounds like you, it’s time to think about how you can find a better balance between your work and the rest of your life. The real problem in all of these cases is that none of these people are living by their complete values set.

All aspects of your life need to flow from your core values and those values don’t just inform your career choices. Your values should also guide you in choices about how you take care of yourself – how you meet your physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs. They guide you in your relationships with your family, friends and co-workers, and they offer a guideline about how to treat the environment and the world at large. To the extent that you neglect any of these, you are going to suffer, your career will suffer and those who you are in contact with as well.

Finding the right balance between work and the other aspects of your life is a matter of learning how to apportion your energy most efficiently by listening to your values. The first step in doing that is to get clear on your values. One way to do this is to read my ebook The Last 4 Doctors You’ll Ever Need – How to Get Healthy Now! and pay particular attention to the chapter on Dr. Happiness. That section of the ebook will offer you a quick but accurate guide to determining your core values. If you don’t have access to the ebook, you can start by listing your personal values – your most basic mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual needs – your professional values – the features you need your career to take on in order for you to be successful and fulfilled – and your relationship values – those features that need to be in place in any relationship in order for it to be healthy and meaningful.

Once you have a clear picture of your values, write them down and plan around them. Your values should always be part of your goal structure – on a daily, weekly, monthly and life-long scale. If your values don’t inform every goal, then they shouldn’t be part of your goal structure. This means all of your values as well. How does your goal to work 15 hours today fit with your relationship values if you have a family? Does it allow you to meet that value? If the answer is no, don’t make a 15 hour workday a goal!

Setting your goals in the background of your values is a learning process. Unfortunately, most people don’t know what their core values are and really don’t live by them, so it may take time and real practice to evaluate and organize your goals in the way that I’ve described. One way to speed up this learning curve is to review your daily and weekly goals with an eye towards how those goals, once completed, matched up with your values. This will allow you to re-structure your plans in the future to better satisfy those values.

So set aside some time to think about your values and start planning your day around them. Pretty soon, I think you’ll find that you’re more successful on the job and you’re enjoying life more than ever!