Got Balance?

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing an extraordinary leader on the IrRelevant Leader podcast.

My guest offered a number of valuable ideas, practices, and experience in developing effective and necessary leadership skills.

One of the topics we discussed was related to “work-life balance” and while this is a familiar phrase his perspective was unique and refreshing.

He stated that he did not believe that balance meant that work and life should be equal. He went on to say that the life element (particularly family) of “work-life balance” should always be more heavily weighted than the work factor.

I started thinking about “balance” as it relates to work in an entirely new way. Today I am considering the term balance from the perspective of one of its synonyms, harmony.

Even if you work for an organization that respects and values the concept of work-life balance but you do not, it is doubtful that you will achieve harmony.

While there are numerous and obvious advantages related to our current technology it has made working anywhere, and at any time completely accessible. This access can be an impediment to your achieving balance.

All too often, I experience clients who see the benefits of a more balanced life but struggle with the implementation.

Leaders who do not have a sense of harmony and balance most often do not show up as their best selves. When you are not operating from your highest degree, you are doing a disservice to everyone in every area of your life.

Moving out of balance and harmony usually happens slowly and eventually becomes a default mode. Once established as a default you adopt beliefs that confirm your need to be out of balance and therefore out of harmony. You create theories that in order to _____ and achieve ____ you must ____.

When I investigate these types of beliefs with my clients what they in time see is that they have created beliefs that are not necessarily grounded in facts.

Of course, sometimes it is necessary that more time, energy, and effort be focused on work but if it is the rule and not the exception it becomes a lifestyle.

If work is the primary consumer of your time, energy, and effort there may be other leadership incongruities worth investigating.

Equilibrium or balance establishes a solid foundation for you to find harmony and meet the needs and desires of your life.

If you find that you are frequently operating from the place of disharmony in your work-life relationships it might be worth investigating and perhaps challenging your beliefs and concepts.

Conduct a balance inventory and decide where you can focus more effort in creating balance and harmony. Think about the areas of your life where there is frequent disharmony.

Be willing to investigate what beliefs are driving the imbalance. Are these facts or simply stories you have authored?

So often you are already aware of what choices would be more beneficial but are not making those choices. If this is the case for you, I invite you to take one small step towards shifting your behavior in the direction of balance and harmony.

As the saying goes…If you keep doing what you have always done, you will keep getting what you have always gotten. It is not true that you will change a behavior right after you engage with it one more time. Not true, not true.

What is true is that each time you engage you further embed that behavior into your brain, and it becomes the default. When you operate from your default you no longer consciously think about your actions but instead, automatically operate from them because they have become your “normal.”

Don’t expect yourself to change all at once. Your behaviors were probably established slowly and over time so the adoption of new behaviors will more than likely also occur gradually, over time.

The goal is that you set the intention to create a more balanced and harmonious lifestyle. In doing so you will experience reduced stress and more fulfilling relationships in every area of your life.

Be BOLD… create BALANCE!