Work/Life Balance … Why It’s A Mirage
Remember, work is life and life is work. Avoid looking to the mirage of balance between the two. Instead, be balanced by investing wholly while at work! Be whole and show up with fullness when it’s time. Then, go home, and be home, when it’s time. The question is wholeness and showing up fully and abundantly at the right time. Are we whole?
Too many seek to find their validation or acceptance in work because doing is the quickest way to fill a void in our being. Often, someone from our past left a great big hole, or we’ve allowed someone or our own internal dialogue to devalue the priceless person we are. Let’s be honest with ourselves and ask why we’re doing what we’re doing. If we’re burning ourselves out in our occupation, stepping on people as we climb the corporate ladder, and finding more fulfillment in our work than in the relationships of our lives, we can be sure there are past skeletons in our closets. Wounds we must face.
We must stop putting a pretty bow on the lie – called an excuse – that sacrificing ourselves, our health, our happiness and our family are just part of the business owner’s M.O. It’s not, nor does it have to be! What’s really driving us? The call to find healing – deep healing – is compelling us!
For without healing, we won’t show up whole – able to abound and make greater impact in the time we choose to contribute and charge toward our vision.
Carnegie shares the story of John D. Rockefeller Sr., who at the age of 43 had built up the largest monopoly the world had ever seen – the great Standard Oil Company. Yet at only 53, when most men are at their prime, his shoulders drooped, and he could barely walk. Carnegie states, “the ceaseless work, the endless worry, the streams of abuse, the sleepless nights and the lack of exercise and rest had exacted their toll … they’d brought him to his knees … he was now the richest man in the world yet had to live on a diet that a poor man would have scorned.” Rockefeller’s income at the time was a million dollars a week, and two dollars a week paid for all the food he could eat. “Nothing but medical care, the best money could buy, kept him from dying at the age of 53,” Carnegie concludes.
From this wounded personality exudes an unrealistic ambition. Covey shares that those exemplifying wholeness “don’t become workaholics, religious zealots, political fanatics, crash dieters, food bingers, pleasure addicts or fasting martyrs.” When you work, be all in, so that when you’re home, you’re all in. Seek to find healing so you can become whole and operate abundantly! Let being all in at work – whole and abundant – amplify your energy! Focus on wholeness!
Igniting energy … Tim Hooper
ENERGY COACH to EXECUTIVES & HIGH-ACHIEVING TEAMS | AUTHOR of GOT ENERGY? | SPEAKER @ ENERGY4LIFE Workshops
