“You can’t truly be considered successful in your business life if your home life is in shambles.” ~ Zig Ziglar
I’m sure most people have seen the 1980 film by Stanley Kubrick entitled, The Shining. The story, written by Stephen King, is a psychological thriller about a writer who takes his family to an isolated hotel to be the caretaker in the off-season. It will also give Jack Torrance (played by Jack Nicholson) some much needed time to work on his new book.
At one point in the movie, Jack’s wife begins to realize that things are getting a little weird and that is when she stumbles across his manuscript which is comprised of line after line, page after page of just one sentence, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”
Well things go down hill from and the insanity begins.
Striving, Success, & Balance
Sometimes in our striving to be successful, we lose site of those things that bring a sense of balance to our lives. We push ourselves to continuously do more, accomplish more, or be more. And in doing so, we never take the time to occasionally unplug our “work brains” so we can recharge the batteries and get re-balanced.
Folks who measure their success by how busy they are are especially prone to being off-balance in the work-life balance category. Even though they may have years of acquired knowledge and experience, they still work at a frenetic pace as if they were just starting their career or were new to the position. The underlying fear is that if they let their foot off the gas even a little bit, they will fail.
I have also experienced leaders with type-A personalities, ADHD, or ADD who love to stir stuff up because they feed off the adrenaline rush of the chaos. They pay no heed to the chaos they create in everyone else’s life, because they need to feel the buzz. I recently read about a leader who had a meeting with their team until late one night to plan a strategy for a large client. The next morning, they emailed the entire team at 3:00 AM and told everyone to come in 2 hours early to redo the plan.
These are just two examples of situations that can cause work-life imbalance, I am sure we could come up with a whole lot more. But I think this begs the question…
“How do I know if my work-life balance is out of whack?”
Here are a few signs.
10 Signs Your Work Life Balance Isn’t Balanced:
- You’re family is crying when you come home from work…not when you leave for work.
- You would rather work late, than to go home to be with your partner, spouse, or kids.
- You’re family is going on vacation…and you aren’t invited!
- You wake up at 3:30 AM and decide you need to send an email to clarify some points you made to someone earlier in the day.
- You wake up at 2:30 AM and send an email to anyone for any reason.
- You have so much vacation time built up, that you could literally take 3 months off and not skip a paycheck.
- You walk in the house one day after work and your spouse asks “Who Are You?” It is only at that point that you realize you’ve walked into the wrong house!
- You come home from a long business trip with a Teddy Bear for your little boy and find him upstairs in the bathroom…shaving!
- You have this sudden desire to start typing “All work and no play makes Jack, Tony, Susan, or any other name a dull boy or girl!
- You come home from work one day and find that your family has moved out, when you track them down they tell you they filed a missing person report for you because they actually moved three weeks ago!
Go Long
Okay so maybe you chuckled a bit. But on a more serious note you will be far more productive over the rest of your work-life if you occasionally pause to get re-balanced and re-centered so you can focus on what is truly most valuable in your life.
The truth is that there is no job, position, title, or amount of money, that can replace the your family, especially the short time you have with your kids. Sad thing is some people never get this until they lose them (physically or emotionally).
Providing for your family is only half of the equation, spending quality time with them is is the other half of the equation.
So please, do what ever it takes to get re-balanced and stay balanced throughout your career, you really don’t want to be the person who realizes this fact too late in life!
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Until next time!
