Seek Work-Life Balance? Get a Professional Coach
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How am I going to get all this work done?
The project deadline is coming up.
I have so much to do and not enough time.
I better practice again to ensure I don’t draw a blank during the presentation.
Have any of these or similar thoughts infiltrated your mind while you are off from work?
“Work Life-Balance” is a concept that has been written about and debated for decades. Work-life balance is relevant to all of us, irrespective of gender, age and years of experience. Nowadays, professionals are working longer hours with the support of technology and encouragement of many employers. Typically, longer work hours negatively impact mental and physical health. It can lead to more anxiety, insomnia, depression, and heart and digestive problems. Low self-esteem and burnout may occur. Personal and professional relationships also suffer. In the race to achieve and acquire, professionals are forgetting their well-being. Work-life balance is vital to both a healthy professional and personal life.
Work-Life Balance is not easy to define
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Work-life balance is not easy to define. It has become an evolving construct. A few strokes on your computer keyboard will lead you to a plethora of articles and tons of opinions on the internet about what it is and how to achieve it. One school of thought is that work-life balance is about time management — neatly dividing your hours in the day between your professional and personal life. You sacrifice time in one area of life to have more time in another area. Another perspective focuses on an individual’s mental capacity to be equally engaged at work and in other aspects of life such as family, leisure, exercise, community, etc. This requires people to distance themselves from those pesky thoughts about work while off the clock so they can be fully immersed in personal activities. A third view acknowledges that one definition of work-life balance will not fit everyone. Work-life balance is about having flexibility to do what you like and the way you like at work and home. Thus, work-life balance is unique and needs to be custom tailored according to your values, needs and preferences.
Okay, so what? How do I achieve work-life balance?
Articles and experts will tell you zillions of strategies to get work-life balance. Common strategies include flexible work hours, telework, regular mini-breaks, comfortable work conditions, casual dress code, opportunities for professional growth and social engagement, meaningful work, avoiding distractions, time management, energy management, planning personal activities, communicating boundaries to colleagues and managers, quarterly vacations, and the list goes on. The pursuit for work-life balance can become exhausting. Although strategies are effective, they usually don’t stick long-term without changing perspective and focusing on values.
Work-life balance is not about equilibrium, nor is it steady. Life constantly changes. How you view work-life balance and how you find balance is a matter of choice. However, professionals often don’t see that they have choice.
A perspective is an interpretation of a circumstance. As a certified professional coach, I listen, make observations, and ask insightful questions to help clients understand their perspective about work-life balance. When clients uncover their perspective, they find different ways to view work-life balance.
Values are beliefs that we deem important in life. They are inherent guideposts to a fulfilled life. Values impact our behavior, how we perceive ourselves, how we relate with others, and our decisions. Values are a tape measure for creating work-life balance. I use assessments and coaching skills to help clients discover their values. From there, clients consciously choose the work-life balance experience they seek. This is based on their values, and not through stressing and trying to squeeze work and life into an overpacked to-do list.
In conclusion, work-life balance is a personal journey and worthwhile pursuit. It enhances happiness, peace, health, job satisfaction, job performance, and relationships. You must decide what work-life balance means to you, and what works and doesn’t work for you to obtain it. A professional coach helps you define and measure work-life balance, and then take deliberate actions to achieve it.
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