Preconditions for Balance
By Rebeldad Brian Reid
I sometimes fall prey to the idea that attaining work-life balance is like assembling Ikea furniture: If I can just get all the right parts and follow the directions (say "no," get organized, put the spouse first), I should have a brilliantly stable life. Obviously, it doesn't work that way for me, and, looking around, just doing the "right" thing isn't enough for most of the people I meet.
It seems to me that there are some preconditions you have to meet if you want a balanced life. If you don't have these things in order, no amount of balancing will get things under control:
You Have to Like Your Job: It doesn't matter if it's unpaid work at home or a six-figure position with a corner office, you have to like what you do to have any shot to balance. I had a gig once where the hours were reasonable, but the expectations were low and the work so dull that no matter how much extra time I had, I was perpetually dissatisfied.
You Have to Like Your Significant Other: You have to have a good relationship with another adult in your life. Pretty much everyone has a single person at the top of their support system, and as goes that relationship, so goes balance.
You Have to Take Your Health Seriously: Life is never as good as when I'm firing on all cylinders, but as I get older that only happens when I do all the right things. Eat protein. Get my eight hours. Break out the running shoes.
You Have to Have Personal Time: Got hobbies? Drinking buddies? An unfinished novel? Seems that to really appreciate work and home, I have to get away from both. Thank goodness for hockey night (which is as much about the locker-room camaraderie as the exercise).
This can't be it ... what are the other items that you have to lock down before you can start to work on balance?
Brian Reid writes about parenting and work-family balance. You can read his blog at rebeldad.com.
By Brian Reid |
January 31, 2008; 7:00 AM ET
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