Once you stop looking for it, it all gets better.
I’ve been trying to find a way to get my thoughts out on this topic for a while now. You see, I have a running list of potential blog topics that I look at every week and this one, well, this one has been on the list for over a year.
The magical and mystical creature known as “work-life balance.”
Ok, you may not agree with me on this — and I hope we can be ok with that — but yeah, it doesn’t exist. I mean fake or not, I’ve at least seen pictures (albeit blurry AF) of Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster, I think David Blaine might actually do real magic, and don’t even get me started about the UFO crash at Roswell, NM.
Whether you think they’re real or not, there are cases to be made to support their existence. Cool.
But not for work-life balance
Sorry to burst your bubble, but work-life balance isn’t a thing. I’d even go as far as to say that it shouldn’t be a thing. Let me explain….
I am not sure who invented the term or where the idea came from (I could probably do what writers call, “research” and find out, but I’m blogging it up right now and in the zone so let’s just keep going), but if it ever were actually a thing, I don’t think it is anymore.
The term assumes that work is not life, that life is not work, and that these two ideas are opposites by every definition. Forever in a battle where there can only be one winner.
Too much work = not enough life.
Too much life = not enough work.
Well, that’s not really how life is anymore at all
Instead of “life” and “work” being against each other, it seems that these days there really is only “life,” with perhaps “work” being one thing under that.
Other things under “life” might include “family,” “hobby,” “self-care,” etc.
Why does “work” have to be against “life?”
So instead of this:
Maybe it can be this:
Stop searching and set yourself free
Seriously, stop. The moment you stop searching for something that doesn’t exist, everything gets better.
I’m starting to sound kind of preachy, aren’t I? Hmmm…yeah. Sorry. Let’s just keep going…
More than 2 things
It really comes down to that: we are all more than just two things. It can’t be just “Life vs. Work” can it? If it is, then we’re f***ing up big time.
You don’t have to be a a parent or a business owner to restructure your perspective about all of this, but yeah…it probably helps. When you are one — or both — of those things, you are that all_the_time. Weekends might be different, but it’s not a break by any means. It’s more of a reallocation of where your time is spent, but yeah…all the same pieces are still there.
Work is just one piece of life. Have other pieces. Have lots of other pieces. Finding balance between those pieces is perhaps what’s important.
Life kind of lets you do whatever the hell you want to do. It’s both great and terrifying, actually. The more you choose to do, the more difficult it can get. You don’t need me to tell you that.
But the sooner I was able to put “work” and the other pieces under “life,” the sooner I saw that I was able to not only do more, but also invest more of myself into those activities.
If you totally disagree and have been able to find work-life balance, please send me a poorly lit, grainy photo of it and we’ll discuss.
#bewhatyoumake
