Achieving Work-Life Balance

Achieving a work-life balance that is just right is never easy. Being a workaholic can ruin personal relationships, but blindly sticking to a regimented mix of career, family, and outside interests can harm both professional and personal lives. Flexibility is really the key to achieving work-life balance.

There are times when you will need to devote most of your waking hours to a business project or deal with a personal issue. The issue that arises may be a once in a decade opportunity such as a major expansion, or a new product launch. On the other hand a situation may arise that demands your full attention in your private life, such as a family move to new home.

Advance preparation for certain activities like a product launch or a family move can help minimize changes in the short term. It is important to understand that you may not be able to sustain perfect balance all the time. You have to be willing to modify your expectations and adjust your schedule to attend to urgent and important matters before returning to equilibrium.

If you have children get over the guilt that occurs from missing an event. Being able to attend events is wonderful when your children are young and it can get even better when they are older. But it is easy to become overbooked with commitments when your kids have weekly sporting events and academic competitions, parent meetings, seasonal recognition ceremonies, etc. Admit that you may not be able to make every event and activity. Decide what is truly important to you and your child and commit to those events.

Understand that your work and life will change during the course of your career, leading to a shift in priorities and blur in focus for certain periods. Be understanding with yourself during times of readjustment. Promise yourself to make periodic evaluations of professional and personal goals. Make a plan to emphasize one or two areas of your life as needed. Aim for work-life balance for the long haul, not the short term.

Jackie Gordon is a Marketing Coach. Learn how others are earning money and balancing their lives with My Lead System Pro. Learn marketing tricks. Check out My Lead System Pro.