How to Achieve Work-Life Balance

How to Achieve Work-Life Balance

Pursuing your passion and the career you love to build a better life is all about focusing on the things that are important to you, namely achieving your goals, rather than just plodding through life, accepting whatever happens to you. You want to be an active participant in shaping your destiny. You have certain deadlines for your plan to focus on, which is awesome. However, without achieving the proper balance in your life then you are less likely to succeed.

So how do you achieve a single-minded focus on your goals while at the same time, taking care of yourself? The ‘power building’ triangle will help you to keep balance while you maintain focus on your goal.

The Three Ps of balance – the power triangle
A good visual aid for this type of analysis is an equilateral triangle. You remember geometry class, don’t you? As its name suggests an equilateral triangle is one where each length of the triangle is equal to each of the other two. I will explain further how to use these in fulfilling your potential.

Passion: This is the key to everything. Imagine it as the bottom side of the triangle, as it supports the other sides. It is the foundation of everything you’ll do. When you are making lists and prioritising your attention and behaviour, your first thought will be how will this advance my passion and my dream?

Priorities: All of us, no matter how lofty our goals, cannot escape basic requirements that are needed for everybody. These necessary elements are the second side of the triangle, which reinforces the foundation. In order to live successfully, regardless of our dreams and determination to work towards a passion-driven life, we have to face certain inevitabilities. We must pay bills, care for our children or parents, pay taxes and do routine chores such as washing and cooking. When doing these essential activities, look for ways to remind yourself that each one of these essential ‘chores’ that you complete allows you the time to work on your passion.

A simple way to simplify the time taken to deal with the inevitable chores is to schedule a specific day in your week for them. In this way, you’ll save both time and energy, as you won’t have to spend more time than required in thinking and worrying about when you should deal with them, whether it’s about your rent, your utility bills or any other relevant obligation of yours.

A different type of priority that you must deal with is medical care. If you have a particular medical situation that has arisen, or requires consistent self-monitoring, then assuring that you remain physically healthy is a vital priority that allows us to strive towards our dream.

Play: Even though the word ‘play’ can indicate frivolity and pleasure, it is still essential. We know that it is through play that children learn how the world works, so I do not want to undermine play and pleasure as though they are not significant and vital. This is a broad category and covers many different aspects. It is the side of the triangle that represents emotional care of ourselves and can be more fluid in how we deal with it.

People who study cognitive learning can demonstrate that when learning is ‘fun’, it is retained more easily. It stands to reason then, ensuring that our mind is relaxed through various activities that reinforce the fun side of life, that we will perform better in serious tasks.

If you are in a relationship, do not make the mistake of allowing the ‘day-to-day’ to define your interactions. For example, commit to a regular date night at least once a fortnight. Connecting deeply with the ones we love not only does it make us feel great, but it also reinforces our reasons for wanting to improve our lives.

For single readers, the same principle applies to your own downtime. After work or study, if you come home every night without any purpose, you will start dying inside. Your dream needs constant work to keep it alive. Without the fuel of excitement, the passion easily dies. You can still hang out with friends or enjoy yourself alone at least once a week. You can go for a movie or to an art gallery, play a musical instrument or enjoy a concert.

These types of activities are not the ‘black holes’ draining away precious time. They are essential actions that promote that YOU are worthwhile. The more worthwhile you feel, the more worthy you will feel about pursuing your goals and dreams.