Work-Life Balance…If you don’t have it, get it.
Having a work-life balance means something different to every individual. It is, at best, an elusive ideal and at worst a complete myth.
After over 13 years working behind a desk in corporate offices, with not much of a life outside of work, it eventually caught up on me. I needed a change from working 12 hour days and feeling like I couldn’t, or shouldn’t take time off. I even felt bad for taking a holiday, feeling like I was letting my boss down is not a nice place to be in.
So I took charge of this and made changes in my life. I quit my job, sold my house, put everything in storage, went on holiday, spent a lot of my holiday setting up my business, came back home, packed my bags, bought a plane ticket and started my new life. Working and travelling, being location free, being adaptable and experiencing life through a whole new lens. I made a decision and followed through.
At first everything seemed scary and overwhelming. And I have spent many days and nights doubting myself, wondering what the hell I am doing. It’s a massive lifestyle change and a new way of working for me, but I am very lucky to have the type of job that I love and can do from anywhere in the world. I can create the freedom I want within my work week so I can create the work-life balance to suit my lifestyle.
There aren’t any rules to finding a work life balance. Balance is an individual thing and you have to find your own. When I talk about balance, I mean to think about self-care so that your body, mind and soul are being refreshed. It’s up to you to prioritise, adjust and decide on how you want to live your life. Pay attention to your own needs and listen to your intuition. My intuition has played a huge role helping me get to where I am today.
You can’t control everything that happens in your life, so try and create plans and processes for the things you can control. Sometimes it takes a big event in life to shake things up, or a change in circumstances to have you thinking about what you really need to feel fulfilled. For me the big event was that I consciously uncoupled from my partner of 8 years, so I was ready for an adventure and to get to know my single self. I needed to take the time to re-evaluate life, work, mind and soul. To take a birds-eye view of my life and ask myself: What changes could make life easier?
Whatever it is for you, I encourage you to take a step back, spend time reflecting, really dig deep and be honest with yourself. If you feel like you’re out of balance day in, day out, then you probably are. It’s time to look at what’s going on and make some changes. Start small. Build from there.
