Saturday, April 26, 2008

Work Life Balance Is Not a Myth

Having a solid work/life balance is not just a goal, you must make it a priority. If your priorities are all screwed up to begin with, how in the heck do you expect yourself to make reasonable judgements at your job? Seriously, think about it: you are trying to move up the mythical corporate ladder, so you are doing everything that you have to do in order to keep moving, right? Do you see how messed up that even sounds? In today's society, business will use you until they have you sucked dry, can no longer perform and then cast you aside to find the next "Mr/Mrs Supervisor". It isn't an anecdote, it is real.

So, how do you achieve true work life balance? I am 39 years old and have only discovered part of the mystery within the past 6 months. You have to make a conscious effort to achieve ANY goal and achieving a balanced life is no different. You have to set your priorities, discern "what affects what" and still make your decisions on the fly. Sure, I make a lot of decisions with a nice, long, drawn out thought process; however, you can not realistically make every decision in that way. Supervisory decision making skills are much like playing poker: you have to determine the odds of "A" happening versus the reward/payout.....if the payout is higher than the risk, then the risk may be worth taking, unless you are talking about a decision that will majorly affect your family's life. From someone who has been there, do not do it. OK, so I have said a lot without saying anything at all, right? Welcome to leadership! Seriously, your family life should take precedence over any work related decision in which you will not seriously benefit greatly: ie: you take a promotion that will cause you to be away from your family @ 10 extra hours per week, BUT your salary is increased by 25% more......what do you do? It depends. What would you do with that 10 hours per week if you did not take the job? Sit on the couch? Spend time alone? Any other selfish/self centered thing? If yes, then take the job. If you could spend that time teaching your child how to throw a frisbee, how to fish, climb trees OR spend that time with your spouse, then in my book, the job loses EVERY time.

Do not be afraid to consider the last job/next job: I had a job before I found my last one.....I have a job now, but that does not mean that I can not find another one. I dearly love the job that I currently have because it gives me flexibility (within reason) in my schedule, but if I had to make a work/life decision that affected my being able to spend time with my 6 year old son or the woman that I will grow old with, the job will lose. It will lose everytime. Simply put, all you have to do is make a simple decision: your family OR your career. While the money and benefits look, feel and taste nice, what happens when you lose your family, but have the hectic career that put that nice car (loan) in the garage, the nice home (loan), get the (loan) picture? What do you seriously own? Personally, I own a life and not much else and would not have it any other way.

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