Every-time I see a post on social media about the “work-life balance”, with a pastel image of a woman running through a field of tall grass, it makes me want to gag.
On the surface, it’s meant to be inspiring, but when reading the captions, it’s just some generic fluff which gives away the fact the person has no experience in this “balance”.
When my Mom was with us, she would tell me on every phone call “you work too much”.
Under my breath I’d be saying, “I love what I’m doing, so what’s the ******* problem”.
When I started my business three decades ago, I was naive. The only girl in the “computer programming and systems analysis” program, I always had to prove I was just as good or better than the guys. I was also the oldest one in the program and had two kids.
I worked like hell through school and worked like hell starting my business the day after I graduated. The well-meaning comments came “why don’t you take a break?”
Let’s just say when someone tells me they’re working their ass off, all I say is would you like a cup of coffee and talk about it.
I don’t dare offer advice about work-life balance, because I have no idea what their situation is.
As I’m typing this, it’s been a while since I wrote a fresh article, because I’ve been doing back to back VIP days for what seems like forever.
Yesterday, I was sitting in front of my laptop for 40 minutes, now knowing what in the flipping hell to write because I was feeling a bit uneasy sharing something personal and knowing I was going to offend someone.
I know better than to have writers block, I have a wall of sticky notes to prove it.
In my left ear, my good alter-ego reminded me that it’s ok to take a break, go and meditate, have some tea and get breakfast going.
In my right ear, my adventurous alter-ego said it was ok to just sit here, Joe can make breakfast for both of us, because he won’t ask for help, knowing how important writing is to me.
I thought my head was going to explode
The guilty feeling of not helping Joe with breakfast pinged at my heart, however, I really wanted to start the day working on a project that gave me a butterflies in my stomach feeling.
Do I dare question the wisdom of these “work-life balance” experts?
Is it 4 hours of work and 4 hours of doing non-work?
What happens when things get out of balance.
I say screw it.
You’ll know deep inside when it’s time to switch:
- Eyes getting dry after working for 3 hours? take a break
- Gone for a walk to relax, but you’ve come up with an amazing product idea you want to get on paper? dictate it on your phone
- Binge watching Netflix and feeling twitchy because your bored? go back to work.
- Is your personal relationships suffering because you’re working too much? talk it out.
- Are you mentally and physically healthy? celebrate!
Having that awareness is critical for the “work-life balance” to work for “you”.
This morning my routine should have gone like this:
- prep Mia’s dog food for breakfast
- organize the meds for Joe and I for the day
- make an espresso
- write my daily “One Thing Action Plan” while listening to ocean sounds on YouTube
- writing my next IMPACTpreneur newsletter.
But after I organized the meds, thoughts of a specific project popped into mind and I felt my heart sink. It’s a project for a client of 25 years, where I had no idea how to troubleshoot something and it was a frustrating and embarrassing experience.
As I was putting Mia’s dog food bowl down, my eyes caught the little Roses of Sharon seedlings I’m growing.
A green thumb I don’t have. I started with seeds from 3 Roses of Sharon shrubs in my Mother-in-Law’s garden, and now, they are 3″ tall. Talking to them every day must be the trick!
Grabbing my potting mix, larger pots, and a chopstick and headed to the kitchen to start transplanting the seedlings into large pots.
No protective cover, dirt flying everywhere and I didn’t care.
I’ve never felt a sense of relaxation doing this for an hour.
Even that frustrating project popped into my mind and within 3 minutes, I came up with a solution. Side-note: implemented the solution this afternoon and voila!
Never would I have thought that doing something so simple as indoor gardening would take my mind off things and free’s up space in my brain to work out that problem.
What’s funny, it that I was planning on doing this a month ago and never felt inspired to do it.
But now I’m going to setup a box with everything I need including seeds to try this the next time I’ve hit a stump in a project.
Do you think this is “work-life balance”?
All I know is I’m not going to feel guilty doing one or the other.
It’s ok to choose work over mind-numbing TV.
It’s ok to choose to relax for a while, when you’re stressed out while working. Working more isn’t going to fix things. Your mind needs a break.
It’s your life and your rules and that’s what I’m sticking with.
Until next time, stay inspired!
Gisèle
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