Embrace Work-Life Harmony, Renounce Work-Life Balance

Stress, burnout, anxiety and pressure – these words have become so common in today’s life. While, just a decade ago – these words were unheard of, in today’s time they have become the causes of so many physical ailments. Infact, stress has been termed as “World Wide Epidemic” by World Health Organization.

 So what has happened in the last few years that we are getting so stressed out?

Though there are many reasons because of which stress has increased but one of the most crucial reasons is the constant pressure to balance our lives – whether it’s our work life or our family life. In an effort to balance our life, we forget that balancing is what jugglers do best and everybody is not a juggler or rather everybody can’t juggle everything.

So instead of juggling and trying to find balance in  your life, look for bringing harmony in your life with your work and other aspects. Most of the times we feel that to bring success in life, we need to make sacrifices with other areas- family, self or friends; however this is a misguided view -  as success which comes by ignoring everything else is No success.  This is the reason that Work-Life Balance is a shot down term as it implies strict tradeoffs to gain something. It is a common notion that to bring personal and professional fulfillment we have to give them equal priority and consideration. However this leads to a perpetual feeling of guilt and remorse because we feel that we are not able to give 100% in either area.    

What Work-Life Harmony is and What it is not.

Work-Life Harmony is not about dividing your time and balancing all the aspects such as work, health, family or friends by giving equal time to each- this equality can never happen as they are not equally distributable.

Harmony is all about integrating all the aspects – Work, family, health, friendship together and like musical notes – making a melody by sprinkling all the aspects at the right time so that a melodious song is produced.  The idea is that by achieving harmony you can focus on one thing at a time that needs attention.  

Work-Life harmony comes with the vision that if a person is happy at home, he/she will go to their workplace with lot of positive energy, or if the person is happy at work, he/she will go home with lot of happy energy alternatively if the person is unhappy at their workplace, then the same unhappiness gets reflected in their actions and behavior at home. Creating harmony in your work and personal life is all about changing your perspective; it is an integrated and a holistic approach towards leading a happier and successful life where work and personal life intermingle together in combinations that is exclusive to an individual.

With the above thoughts in mind about embracing Work-Life Harmony, listed down are some strategies on how it can be achieved

Self Awareness

We all know knowledge is power and knowledge about self is like having unlimited power. Being aware of your own self is the key to bringing harmony in all the aspects of your life. There are certain actions or behaviors that may drain your energy or they may increase your energy. Identifying such activities will make it easier to eliminate or reduce the energy draining activities and increasing the energy enhancing activities.  Harmony helps in making our life more organized if we are self aware and moves it away from being chaotic.

Be Mindful and Prioritize

The four aspects of our life – Work, Family, Self/ Health and Friends are all important but keeping all the aspects happy all the time is too much to ask for from yourself. By being mindful, you are giving the value to that aspect of your life which needs your attention at a particular time. Prioritizing helps in knowing which aspect needs your attention more according to the circumstances in your life. Through these actions, you bring your work and life in harmony and integrate both which in turn gives you a sense of fulfillment in everything that you do.

Communicate…Communicate

Communication plays paramount role when you are trying to create harmony in your Work-Life. While achieving harmony in your life, there will be times where you may fail, and that is when communication will help you in keeping everything together. Open and regular Communication with your family, colleagues, boss or friends will facilitate in keeping you on track. Interact and be clear with the situations that you may be facing and if things aren’t going right, make sure you communicate with the people involved in that situation.

Develop Core Habits

Core habits are essentially a practice or a lifestyle that we start following as it gives us overall life satisfaction; these habits may form intentionally or even unintentionally. Core habits create a domino effect bringing a positive change in all the aspects of our life, thus making it easier to achieve fulfillment in our lives. For instance, core habits can be working out after a stressful and tired day or it could be starting your day with meditation which helps in increasing the level of satisfaction that you would experience in a given day.

What are your Core Habits? Write down 3 habits that will make you feel happier, regardless of how difficult and stressful your day has been.

 Attaining work-life harmony is not an easy task but it’s also not something which is impossible to do. Although it requires one to keep reinventing and learning what works and what doesn’t, but the payoff is extremely beneficial as it leads to less stress, less guilt and more peace of mind and fulfillment.