How to Create Work- Life Balance

By Kathy Robinson
Founder, Career and Business Consultant

It seems like everyone’s been talking recently about the need for work-life balance. But just what is work-life balance anyway, and how do you get it?

Newspapers and magazines typically use work-life balance to refer to company benefits, such as flextime, shortened work weeks, maternity and paternity leave, and onsite childcare. Based on your own personal situation, the flexibility of these benefits may in fact be useful; however, this is not my definition of work-life balance.

Simply put, I define work-life balance as “experiencing enough happiness and energy across all parts of your life.”

Defined that way, don’t your choices for achieving work-life balance become more infinite?

If we look at that statement, it doesn’t imply that you’re going through your life in some blissful, trancelike lotus position. What I mean, truly, is that you can make choices about your life that lead to happiness.

Choice, you say? I don’t have a choice about having to work, take care of my kids, do yardwork, clean the garage, and pay the bills. Maybe not. But you do have choices about how much mental and emotional energy you spend on which areas of your life, and whether you approach those areas from a positive or negative point of view.

People who truly love their work don’t complain about needing work-life balance. For them, the day passes quickly, and gives them positive energy for the other areas of their life. Spend the day in an energizing client meeting, and feel great coming home – your daily responsibilities don’t seem so overwhelming.

Conversely, if you spend your day hating your job or being bored, you’ll crave time off and feel completely exhausted when you get home from work. For example, let’s say you’re in a job where you hate your boss, spend your day avoiding him or her, pretending to be hard at work when they pass by. What kind of energy are you going to have when you get home? Just enough for a microwave dinner and a night of television.

Where are areas right now in which you’re not “experiencing enough happiness and energy across all parts of your life?” What’s draining you? What can you do about it? What steps can you commit to taking, in order to make your life better?

If you identify specific areas of frustration, you then get the choice to address it. I’m not saying there are always easy answers to creating happiness in your life. I am saying it’s up to you, and not some external definition of work-life balance.

Start with finding a career you love, built around your own personal and family needs. Add in hobbies, friends, learning, health and laughter.