You pursue your main interests in life,
deriving rewards of pleasure, satisfaction, comfort, and health. If unable to
evenly distribute your time, energy, or attention among your interests, you may
slip into irritability, anger, depression, or risky behaviors.
Work-life balance is possible when general
conditions are met. You should feel that what you do matters, that it
contributes to a greater good, and that you are growing. Your work role should
use your abilities, and you should have adequate opportunity to employ them.
Your values, beliefs, and ethics should be
compatible with the practices of your employer, and the organization’s actions
should be consistent with its values. You trust and respect co-workers, and
they trust and respect you. Your work life should be challenging but not place
unreasonable demands on your personal life. For example, excessive work-related
travel, documentation, project development, team processes, email, and voice
mail may be an employer’s expectation, but will certainly elevate your stress.
Finally, you must feel that you are compensated fairly, including employment
benefits, for your work.
Temporarily unbalanced systems make
corrections to regain and maintain stability. If your sense of balance is
disturbed by an outside force:
1. Look within
yourself to fully understand your response to it.
2. Consider your
options (you may eliminate, modify, distract, co-opt, pre-empt, preclude,
attack, avoid/evade, yield to, accommodate, or ignore the stressor).
3. Understand and
weigh the possible consequences of each option.
4. Act with
informed intention.
5. Review the
entire experience, gaining insight to guide future behavior.
6. Offer your
steady hand to others.
In the dynamic process of maintaining
control, expect to feel unbalanced. On the tightrope of life, your balance pole
is a mature, adaptive coping strategy.
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ꟷWill Walsh ©2020