The Power of "And" in Work-Life Balance – ElPropósito2 min de lectura

Balance and results, or balance or results?

Photo by Javardh on Unsplash

During an exercise in my team coaching certification, one of our trainers stepped in with something like this: "I notice you use ‘or’ a lot. It’s either this or that. What if you tried ‘and’ more often?" That moment split my life into before and after, because it exposed the either-or thinking we keep forcing on ourselves when there are more than two paths to the same goal.

How would you finish this phrase: life balance and results, or life balance or results? Why do we reach for "or" so much more than "and"? Our minds like to generalize and simplify. Choosing between two options is easier than pushing ourselves to find a third. So it’s no surprise that we first chase whatever seems to make work easier and leave life balance for last (who knows when).

What is life balance? We spend much of our lives working, sleeping, eating and, let’s be honest, on our phones. We also know how much it matters to look after our health, our friends, our career, our spirituality, our image, our family and more. Each is an area of life that deserves our attention and time, and the results we get in one spill over into the others.

So what do we gain by pursuing work-life balance? A more meaningful life, with a sense of purpose in what we want and with peace, calm, harmony, inspiration, creativity and wellbeing. Paradoxically, it’s also a much more productive life. Stress is still there, but we can see what happens when we push past what’s needed and into anxiety or burnout.

How do you actually find work-life balance? I promise to write about it next Sunday. Until then, a few questions to reflect on: How much balance is there between your life and your work? Would you like to find it? If you did, would you be more productive than you are today? If you’ve already found it, what did you do to get there?

A big hug and have a great week,

Rodrigo Baccaro

A few articles worth reading:

• HBR: 3 Simple Habits to Improve Your Critical Thinking
• HBR: Are You Too Stressed to Be Productive? Or Not Stressed Enough?
• HBR: When Burnout Is a Sign You Should Leave Your Job

Author: Rodrigo Baccaro

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