This sixth of the wellness circle can be difficult to give advice. The answer to work-life balance is not a 50/50 split. The majority of us would love for the task to be that simple. It depends on our overall goals, how much we enjoy what we do for a living, if we have a family at home, or if we desire to start one in the near future. One could understand how something with so many variables could take a large effort to understand, let alone succeed at conquering it. How can we determine what will work for us? What is the process of doing this once we believe we have confirmed an ideal?
Work-life balance is up to us. The balance, what we choose as a profession, and what our life will be is up to us. That is unless we don’t choose. Work and life will happen, regardless a profession and life will be given to us. This scenario is the position of many of us. We find ourselves asking “How did I get here?”. It was a lack of conviction, the delay in making a choice, and shying away from anything difficult. At the time, we didn’t know it, but we chose the temporary ease that comes with a lifetime of heartache. If we only knew that going through the heartache was temporary and came with a lifetime of ease, thereafter. There are some of us who know this but still choose the temporary ease. The promise of ease after difficulty sounds good, but this promise doesn’t come with the difficulty’s length of time, so it is avoided. We can see the issue here, correct? Life makes the incorrect choice easier to make. How cruel of the world, right? No, it isn’t. It is a test. Are we willing to struggle? Are we going to fight for what we want? Is the prize something that we deserve? The test allows us to answer the first two questions with action. The action over time will change the answer to the third question from No to Yes.
Once we understand the test for what it is we will find ourselves making the right choice regardless of the wrong choice being easier to make. We will then be equipped to ask, “How can I determine what will work for me?” The first step is to choose what your priority will be. Work or private life? There is no shame in either. If you are an Inventor, CEO, or aspiring CEO, time for family, friends, or social life will be slim in the beginning. The beginning can be six months to 20 years. There is no telling how long it will take to be able to shift attention or time to another place. If we desire to be the mother/father/spouse of a lifetime, that is cool, too. Middle management is most likely the ceiling for those who choose this life. Now that we have made a choice, we can ask ourselves “What is the process of doing this?”. A large part of the process is making peace with your choice. The second finding happiness in it. You should find joy, fulfillment, and financial stability in either decision. With these three in place, we have set ourselves up to achieve Occupational Wellness.
In closing, occupational wellness is an achievable goal. It has its prerequisites, as everything else worth accomplishing in life. There is no balance. The only thing we need to make sure of is that it all adds up to 100%. Giving our all will assure both sides get all the “us” we can to them. Occupational Wellness is the side of our wellness circle that can be the easiest or most difficult of the wellness circle. It is up to us. Will we continue to make the easy but wrong choice? Will we jump back and forth with work/life balance choices wasting time and effort on the side that does not line up with our ultimate goal? Again, the decision is ours, but let’s keep in mind there are five other sides to this wellness journey. If this isn’t the last piece of the puzzle, we should get going. We have work to do.
Food for thought. You do the dishes!
