How many times have you heard the words “work-life balance”?
In a world where everything seems to be moving so swiftly, we all crave for even just a little time to relax and enjoy the life that we work so hard to achieve.
But the thing is, there is no one rule in achieving work-life balance. Rather, it is a recipe that’s composed of several rules that will help you really enjoy the life that you want.
1. Know and Respect Your Boundaries
These days, it’s so easy to be caught up with workthat you don’t realize you’re already too much. Whether you’re running abusiness or working as an employee, you may feel the need to work harder tokeep up with the demands of your job and excel at it.
There’s nothing wrong with that, but you also needto know and respect your boundaries. Even if you’re accessible 24 hours a daybecause you’re one call or email away, always know when not to take calls oranswer emails outside of work. It’s also very important to determine the termsfor working overtime and make sure that you don’t do it often. By setting clearexpectations with your employer, you can save yourself from overworking.
If you’re running a business, always set work hoursfor yourself and try not to go beyond them. Remember that there is more to lifethan just working.
2. Communicate Your Needs
Here’s the thing, you can never achieve quality of life if you don’t determine and communicate what truly matters to you. A lot of people fall into the trap of just expecting others to know what makes them feel fulfilled and balanced.
But the truth is, what might be good to you may notbe for others. So, if you want to make dinner for your family, talk about itwith your employer so he knows that you need to leave at 5PM. If you have workoutsessions in the morning, schedule your meetings after that. When you openlycommunicate about the things that make you happy, it’s easier to plan a workschedule that will benefit you no matter how hard your job is.
3. Don’t Be Afraid to Be Selfish at Times
We live in a world where expectations are higherthan what it was before. But while it’s okay to feel the need to do more, youshould also never forget that you need time for yourself.
Experiencing too much stress and anxiety will not only take a toll on your productivity, but it will also affect your health in more ways than you can think of. So, don’t be afraid to say no to some things so you can prioritize your “me” time. Also, don’t forget for ways to deal with stress and anxiety before they go out of hand. If you don’t want to take traditional medication with therapy, you can explore alternative options like CBD oil for anxiety, for instance, which has amazing benefits to your health.
4. Be Selective of Who You Want in Your Life
If there is one thing that’s really important inachieving work-life balance, it’s definitely the quality of the people in yourlife. Think about your life as a room where everyone that enters will stay withyou forever.
If there were people that are not in your lifeanymore because of the bad things they did to you, chances are, there willstill be traces of them in your mind. This is because “significant input thatis received in your brain triggers neural activity that cannot simply beerased,” according to Dr. Daniel Amen, a neuroscientist. If you are a littlebit more selective of the people you accept in your life, whether at work or inyour personal space, you will start to live better.
Good memories will be created, better decisionswill be made and happier days will be spent with the right people who can livegood fingerprints in your brain, those who will make you a better person.
The Bottomline
A lot of good things can happen when you achievework-life balance. You start to be more productive at work and in your personallife, you get to do more of the things that really matter to you, you makebetter life decisions and of course, you get to enjoy the fruits of your hardwork.
At the end of the day, it’s all about making theright choices and you can start by following these four formulas to make surethat you don’t only earn well, you also live well.