Before the pandemic, we talked about the importance of work-life balance. Now that the way we live has changed – we talk about successful work-life integration.
Talking about work and life in this context implies you have these two things sorted out. It suggests that all we need is to find the right proportions in our busy day-to-day.
This was not the case for me. When I was struggling to find a balance in my life that made me happy – I found the answer by balancing my fundamental priorities.
Focusing on a more holistic view of my life allowed me to balance the things that were truly important to me. As a result, these things weaved themselves through my work and life and helped me feel personally successful.
Finding the balance between fundamental priorities
Life has to be a balance between our preferences and our necessities. But the balance needs to align with who we are and where we want to be.
To achieve this balance, we need to start by reflecting on the life we are living now and what we want from it. This should be done in the context of life’s key ingredients so we can discover guidelines to live our version of a personally successful life.
For me, these key ingredients were:
- Happiness
- Core values &
- Purpose
Finding life balance involves happiness
Happiness is hard to define. But, we know what it means to us and we know if we have enough.
In our busy lives, happiness can be an easily overlooked ingredient. We need to take the time to think about what makes us happy. Consider how often these things happen in our day-to-day. We need to feel satisfied with this balance.
In my journey, I realized activities I did for pleasure were not actually bringing me happiness. I realized activities like watching television were just wasting time. But, when I found the right balance of activities that truly made me happy, my life transformed from feeling mediocre to joyful.
Values are at the core of finding life balance
Another important part of finding my life’s balance was to embrace my core values.
Core values are the fundamentals of how we understand ourselves and approach the world. We need to understand what our core values are and how they show up in the way we live our life.
Living a life aligned to our values helped us feel content with our day-to-day. For example, if we value creativity – days spent being creative may feel ideal.
During my journey, I discovered that I was doing little in my life that aligned with my core values. When I shifted my mindset to seek aligned activities – I stopped feeling disengaged from my life and started feeling motivated and energized.
Purpose is needed for life balance
I found that a sense of purpose was key to feeling fulfilled and living a life that felt meaningful.
Purpose in our life can take many forms. They are activities that give us a “worthwhile” feeling. They can be the opportunity to engage our skills and our passions. They can fully absorb us and make us lose track of time. They are the things that give meaning to our life.
I discovered that a sense of purpose was the core component missing from my life. I found my purpose accidentally from seeking activities that aligned with my core values, which made me happy.
Finding my purpose in supporting others to make their lives better transformed my life into one that felt flourishing and successful.
The key to finding life balance
It is easy to get caught up with our roles and responsibilities. As a result, we can easily end up in a balancing act that doesn’t actually align with who we are and what is important to us. When this happens we need to look beyond work-life balance.
If we self-reflect and look at our life as a whole we can make sure we are tending to the key ingredients in our lives. And we can find the perfect balance we need to make the life we love.