Work - Life Balance

For some, this concept doesn’t exist, as for others it’s just a myth and then there are some who need to acquire the skills for they know it at the back of their mind that they have lost their way from the balance and are forced to get it as it’s affecting their personal and professional life and then there are some souls whose lives are already affected without them having a clue about it.

Let’s begin ….. Do you remember the day we started working and we celebrated that now we are self-sufficient adults, we will be able to full fill all our dreams and do work for the greater good, 

but little did we know that work becomes a part of our lives and rest takes a back seat.  With dreams in our eyes, we started prioritizing time, worked hard to be more productive, tried everything to optimize the output professionally. 

We fought our war through our surrounding for a while, just to realize that there is a specific pattern to the work ethics at our workplace and then we started accustom ourselves to better suit the needs of the organization you are in to achieve the common goals and their visions. Then after some time, we realized that to move up the corporate ladder we have to move jobs to meet the demands of the ever growing, ever competitive world of higher salaries, a better position, and most of all more power.

Time passed and our shoulders became heavy with increased the expenses of EMIs, credit card payments and financial obligation which was accounted to our shopping travels and luxurious.  There started the vicious cycle of reaching deep with your self the push for the promotion, to push to be noticed and put your self in a position where we climb the ladder of the competitive world and earn more.

 We changed jobs with the help of all the possible websites indeed.com, naukri.com, LinkedIn, name it….and we know all of them, read books attended seminars, enrolled in courses and to the height of it, worked extra hours to excel.

Since the spotlight was on our career, we lost grip on your physical and mental self. We learned that our pant sizes moving up along with your multitasking abilities. The fun ended when one fine day we got to know that the person standing in the mirror doesn't look familiar.

The thought process initiated 

1.    Should I go to the gym?

2.    Let me start with walking and see how it goes?

3.    Should I join my workgroup for badminton/ cricket?

And then the inevitable happens In the whole process of thinking and over analyzing, the weekend has gone and we forgot everything as we have deadlines to meet, projects to complete and report to analyze. In a nutshell, we are trying to do everything in our power to cover the syllabus of work-life balance. In this constant struggle, we missed out something called “Life”.

Let's look at some of the cases to see how the missing out LIFE sounds. 

A brilliant Salesman with MBA who has won awards for his outstanding performances climbed up the corporate ladder securing a job today in directorial position, is suffering from multiple lifestyle disorders and trying to connect with his wife and son. Till he reached this stage he never realized that the struggle of both was taking them to different directions.

An IT manager of a firm who was complaining sleepless nights just went through a yearly health checkup. The results categorized him the on1st stage of hypertension and with tachycardia (a heart condition with higher resting heart rate), he never realized why he doesn’t get sleep, he is being asked or rather forced, I would say, to carry out some important lifestyle changes to reduce the excess weight he has gained to combats the altering condition of his heart.

The clerk who was always somewhat fit and loved sports wants to maintain that however, his current work for 12 hours a day is not allowing him to spare time for any physical activity. The discussion leaves him helpless.

In the examples above focus on “the work” or the profession take over “life”.

What is LIFE???

Life to someone is sitting with loved ones and spending quality time, or having fun with close friends, or going on a short trip or traveling the world. Doing something that we love. In the race of earning our livelihood, we not only missing our life but our physical and mental health.

When the conversation about the physical activity starts we observe that due to various reasons we have grown old or we have become less active. The usual sentences are I used to have a good figure/physique however after migrating to a new country/after becoming a parent it’s all gone for a toss. The best one after my marriage…, hold on it's not my creation, these are the reasons we observe, and many times they are genuine ones.

How do we get balance then???? Tricky one???

 let's simplify by realizing the word life in work….

Has it ever happens to you, that from a transparent plastic an apple kept looking at you after you opened it and packed it in the morning, unnoticed in anger changed it's color as the time for it came, you chose coffee over it.  And at the end, its life has gone waste into the dustbin.

Your throat felt as if you were in the Sahara desert

 asking for a gulp of water but you chose beverages as you were hungry as well. One fine day when your doctor/ a friend told you to drink more water and reduce weight. 

You realized that your water intake has gone down and the weight is still increasing.

 These are lifestyle changes that lead to disorders like obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart-related issues, etc.  

As per the World Health Organisation, Cardiovascular diseases account for most Non-communicable Diseases deaths,

•  17.9 million people annually, 
• followed by cancers (9.0 million), 
• respiratory diseases (3.9million), and 
• diabetes (1.6 million).

I would like to apologize, we were talking about life, right???
 So these small things add life in the day, like eating your apple (takes 2-3mins), eating your lunch (takes 15 mins) once in a while getting up from your desk and walking around, getting some fresh once a while during working hours, planning a trip to a new destination periodically, doing what you love that takes you away from your routine even for 15mins e.g. playing guitar, badminton, cricket, going to the gym, taking your bike for a ride or walking. It will keep you active and breathing or let's say alive.

Breathing reminds me of my colleague who is perfectionist, possessive & loves his work as many of us. He often loses his temper 

however as soon as he does, he disappears for 7-8 mins and then comes back calm. He goes out for a smoke. I was observing his behavior and realize that many of us don’t breathe deep enough, so I tried taking 10 deep breathing as soon as I was under any stress…. I am sure you are already trying, not only now but every day at least ones. 

Let's call it 10 Puffs of fresh air.

Keeping it simple, Work – LIFE balance is all about realizing that work is part of our life and we need to take care of it.