We’ve all heard of work-life balance.
At a glance, it’s a relatively simple concept. We get what it implies.
Balancing work & life! Easy enough, right?
But in a way, the idea is kind of hard to pin down because it can mean something totally different to different people.
For some it might be a measurement of equal time between work and life
For others, it could be more of a feeling based on burnout
Maybe it’s the ability to do work and life tasks at will- at our convenience.
But the thing about work-life balance is that it doesn’t always mean you’re finding success in either area of your life.
If anything, this idea implies that you’re splitting your time and energy between two different areas evenly when there could be aspects in each that don’t help you towards your goals.
Imagine a tightrope walker.
On one end, they have their music life:
Projects
Collabs
Networking
Creative Space
On the other end, they have their personal life:
Family & Friends
Responsibilities
Skills
Interests
Please enjoy my very professional doodle! 😂
The tightrope walker is trying to balance two major areas of life on a very unstable rope.
One wrong move, one slip up, one hiccup in any area and it’s easy to see how the balance gets disrupted!
And the problem with this method is that we’re viewing everything within each area with the same weight as one another at all times!
But the reality is that maybe some administrative emails aren’t as important as family time. Some of our fun hobbies might actually be distracting us away from important projects.
And this is where work-life success comes in!
The idea is to take the most important, critical aspects from both areas of your life (the ones that ultimately make you YOU and help progress your goals) and find out how they can inform one another.
Now, I don’t know too much about professional tightrope walking but I do know that much of the success comes from focusing on the core.
So if we look back at stick figure walker, what if we combine our strengths and skills (regardless of the area of life) and center them at our core!
What defines success at your core is going to look different for everyone.
However, if we can reflect on what’s actually important to us vs what’s getting in the way of finding that success, we’ll find it much easier to walk that tightrope!
Of course, those random admin tasks, life necessities, and other distractions are inevitable.
But now, we can focus on what’s important by seeing how our strengths/skills can inform and inspire one another!
And if you haven’t already, be sure to check out my Composer Odyssey Index if you need some help discovering your own strengths!