What if I told you there is no such thing as a work-life balance? My hypothesis is based on the fact that work is part of your life. What if I told you that you need to focus on your life balance instead? It can be complicated for some, but it is true. You need to find your life passions and focus on those.
We are all limited by time. There is no way to cheat your way into more time in a 24 hour day. With that in mind, to truly master things you are passionate about, you need to commit 8 hours a day toward those items. Using simple math, that means you can only focus on three things for that period of time.
During your lifetime, the items you focus on can change, but the fact remains you can only have three. One of those will be a given and it is sleep. You can’t be productive without sleep and if you can trade out sleep for something else your life/health will suffer. So now you are only down to two items. Let’s look at them:
- Job
- Kids
- Spouse
- Social Life
- Major Hobby (Chess Master, Video Gamer, Rebuilding a boat/car, This Contrarian Life…)
- Startup business
These are all HUGE items. These will eat up time to work on and be passionate about. I am not talking about going golfing a couple times a year. These are all COMMITMENTS. This would be saying you are going to take up golf and become a 2 handicap. That level of commitment. (I am currently a 13 handicap for full disclosure)
The one that is interesting to me is career/job. You can have a job and not be passionate about it. That is ok! We need a job to fund our lives and it may be a means to an end. Like funding your hobby/kids/startup/social life. So, all of these might/will be present in your life. They might not be a priority.
For example, what if you are married, with kids, have a job but want to focus on your social life and hobby. Clearly, your spouse, children and job will suffer to some extent. Sometimes they might lead to divorce, your children not having a great relationship with you and you might be passed over for a raise/promotion. There are trade offs to time. You can’t cheat it.
I can personally attest to how it is impossible to balance them all and it has affected multiple aspects of my life. I tried and failed and am learning some harsh lessons from it. Ones that I will share with you on my blogs and podcasts. I look forward to sharing them with you and learning from guests as well.
What are you going to spend your time on?
Please feel free to post comments and let me know your thoughts!
