Chapter 9: #PerfectBalance
While living life driven by goals and purpose, it is very easy to become consumed by your work. The focal point of your very being can become success driven. The question is, however, if you accomplish all of your goals and yet do not have either the time or energy to enjoy the fruit of your own labor, how successful are you? Maybe you have become successful in the business world, or wherever your realm of accomplishments lie, but in life you may have failed. If you neglected your wife or children for the sake of goal accomplishments is that success? What if your drive and passion leads you to neglecting your health and your enjoyment of overall life is compromised because of it, how successful are you then?
A man should not sell his soul,
neglect his family, nor allow his body to deteriorate in pursuit of
goals. Ultimate #success is achieved when you are excelling in
the total human experience. Career or business goal attainment
should only be a part of our lives. We are hardwired to yearn for
achievements and acknowledgment from others. This should not,
however, be the be all and end all. There are 6 aspects that I
identify with the completion of success based living with a renewed
perspective.
1. Taking part
in the family structure
2. Finding
your inner being
3. Career and
professional achievement
4. Community
involvement
5.
Health
6. Rest
These aspects are all needed to
live a truly successful life. Major corporations have attempted to
identify with these needs by creating the work/life balance. In
theory, they feel that your work should be in a perfect balance
with the rest of your life. Some of the recent trends that we are
now seeing companies begin to incorporate are on-location child
care services so that parents can be closer to their children while
at work, actual 'nap stations' so that employees can rest more, the
arrangement of community activities that are centered around
employee involvement, the improvement of healthcare plans, and
employee recognition ceremonies. The list actually goes on and on.
Many businesses now recognize the need for these 6 principles to be
balanced in order to increase productivity. The only issue is since
it is their scale that you are dealing with the results are always
going to be tilted toward accomplishing their work more than
anything else.
The phrase 'work/life balance'
already insinuates that you should be balancing your work on one
side and the rest of your life on the other. Isn't work a part of
life? The truth of the matter is these 6 components need to be
balanced equally in order for true success to be achieved. Sure,
nap stations and at work childcare providers are cool ideas,
however those ideas also promote more time on the job. What good is
rest from work if you're still physically on the job? The highly
celebrated company award ceremony is also a great idea. The only
issue is that they are recognizing you for achieving their goals
not yours. Finding your perfect balance is a tough high wire act.
Most people are usually excessive in one of the 6 categories. I'm
sure we can all identify people who are either over worked, over
sexed, way too rested, spend too much time in the gym, or they are
so spiritually 'enlightened' that they seem physically absent.
Success is not just about the achievement of professional goals, we
as a people need to find a balance between our work and family, our
sleep time and our play time, our spouse and our friends, and we
must do this all without neglecting our physical frame or our
spiritual being.