Work-life balance is one of the most discussed topics in the professional world, as a professional individual is finding it tougher everyday to meet his professional and personal commitments He / She living under this mismatch of expectations in life that is creating more anxiety, stress and shallowness in relationships.
If work on one hand is helping us sustaining our family and is perhaps our one of purposes of life, we can’t deny the other roles that we play of a Son, Daughter, husband, wife, mother, father, friend etc. They also take our mindshare and resources. Hence managing time is of utmost importance to us. But here I’m not talking about time management but rather a totally different side of work-life balance that many of us may not have seen or perceived.
I’m challenging here my and your perspective on the work life balance. We are getting it wrong from the term itself – “work-life balance”. This suggests that work and life are two different entities and we need to balance them. Isn’t work part of our life? If by any way it is different! Then you must think again, as you are spending maximum time of a working day at your workplace than with your family. Does it mean you are not alive or living at your workplace? Do you come to Life only after your working hours end? If this is so how we think? Then we are not living at all. Rather we are living half-lives where ever we are.
Indeed there is a need to bring Life at work than separating work and life. No work in this entire universe is interesting it only how your make it and develop your interest. A very simple example is of a staircase. For many people like me, who are working in the corporates or any other offices, find excuses and pain in climbing stairs if the lift is not working, whereas for a sports person it will give him the extra pleasure of using stairs instead of the lift. The interest is developed when we either align our goals with the work we do or if simply if we find a purpose in what we do and understand or believe that even the smallest of effort today may create the impact for tomorrow.
We should definitely strike balance between “work life – personal life”. It is more than equally important to bring life in the personal relationships. Mahatma Gandhi said it right that If a person is not doing well in one area of his life, he is bound to struggle in the other area of his life too. To bring harmony in our personal life it is important that we don’t see our professional lives as lifeless or rather different than life. We may behave or carry ourselves differently in our professional or personal life, but remember we carry the same person inside. I’m being true to myself saying that I never see or judge people differently in personal and professional life, because it’s the same “Me” inside myself. The only perspective that differs is the level of seriousness and commitment we attach with professional and personal relations. But do you think is it right to differ?
Sending you love, laughter and joy…… Parth sharma