Is work/life balance a myth?
This is a big question that has been running through our minds. One person says to enjoy your youth, the other person says this is the time to work hard and set a place for your future. So, who is right ?
Work-life balance is defined as “the amount of time you spend doing your job compared with the amount of time you spend doing things you enjoy.”
Work is an activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result.
The things you enjoy are totally personal and mental, so what life means to everyone varies.
Problem Statements
- Life is unfair.
- Time is limited.
- Lack of resources to do what you enjoy.
- Mental exhaustion and frustration.
Time Is Limited
- We only have 24 hours in a day.
- 5-8 hours are already spent in bed.
- A couple more looking for what to eat.
- Some hours on the way to your office
- A lot of time spent doing your work, barely any time left
Life Is Unfair
Our workloads, realities, resources and accessibilities to those resources are different. A day cannot be longer than 24 hours. We cannot accidentally stumble upon the resources we need. Life doesn't work that way
Actually, there is a solution
Mahatma Gandhi said “If you do what you enjoy, you’ll never work hard”. This shows that maybe work/life balance is not a myth after all. You can merge two of them - work hard and enjoy yourself
Have you ever heard of “IKIGAI” ?
IKIGAI by Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles is a word coined to be the Japanese secret to a Long Happy Life. It is a state where you find the intersection between :
(1) What you love
(2) What you are good at
(3) What you can be paid for
(4) What the world needs
IKIGAI is absolutely achievable. You can do what you love and enjoy yourself while at it. It just isn’t the reality. We virtually always work for what we can get paid for since that's how we survive. What does that then mean for us ?
Work/Life Balance is a Myth
This is an opinion, not a statement of fact. The best solution to this is self-discipline. This is the correction of oneself for the sake of improvement. We only apply discipline to the work part of our lives, forgetting to be disciplined about the things we enjoy too.
To achieve a good work/life balance, the “life’ part of that phrase has to become a norm. Set time aside to do what you enjoy without letting work interrupt. Make your schedule as realistic as possible. You can’t possibly go hiking on a Monday morning when you have a 9-5. Apps are recommended. Personally, I use Structured and it has been really helpful.
There will always be exceptions, the goal is finding what works for you.
