I must agree with Jeff Bezos when he says that it's incorrect to talk about such a thing as, Life Balance. He prefers to call it: Harmony Life . Why? Because a person could be working 80% of her or his time and be feel fulfilled happy person and in consequence have a happy personal life. Imagine a person who has no motivation to get up in the morning, does not have a job to go to but has all the time in the world to spend with family. This person does not see the value in this time but instead spends the day sad and constantly lacking energy, living a life with no meaning or purpose.
I don't mean an individual who does not have a job, lacks purpose or meaning in their life but I do anyhow believe its important to reflect on Mr. Bezos statement and spend time to get to know ourselves a little better. We should invest time in deciding where to put our energy, to find our passion or in many if not most cases re-discover our passion.
Do you think that for everyone a life of fulfillment is based on investing 50% of their time in work, 25% in family, 25% in fun and recreation?
These percentages may change during our life, for instance, in your twenties you may have spent most of your time focusing on your career rather than on your family but how much has that changed for you now? In my case, experience has led me to prioritize my family by reducing my work hours bringing me to live in harmony with myself and my choices.
My point is, where are your priorities set, where is your energy being invested compared to where you would like it to be? Are you able to answer this question or do you get stuck trying to answer it? The beauty of the question is that once you can answer it honestly, and see it clearly in your mind, you will want to act upon it.
In coaching we use a tool called the wheel of life* to help us, help others answer that and many other questions. Imagine a wheel with a dent... it would be very difficult for it to roll and function, it would eventually break. As a coach it's my goal to help others identify which areas of their life are unbalanced and evoke transformation in the process of knowing. Do you live in harmony?
*The Wheel of life looks like the image below:
