Fulfilling Your Needs with Work-Life Balance

Work-life balance is a process of ensuring all of your needs are met. Focusing too much effort in one area of your life puts you out of sync with your needs and leads to problems down the road. To some this lack of balance might impact their physical, emotional, or financial health in ways they don't realize. Finding the right work-life balance for you takes some time and exploration.

It is first important to find out what you like to do when you are not shuffling papers. Consider those activities that reduce stress and improve health. As general categories, people need to socialize more, get involved in hobbies, or engage in a fitness program. Sometimes people need to do all three!

Socializing:

Socializing with others reduces stress and creates a stronger social network. The worst thing you can do is work long hours and then isolate yourself. This reduces your overall resilience to stress and impacts the way in which you handle life's difficulties. Work on finding social clubs, good friends,  and family activities that help you engage with others.

Hobbies:

 In order to live a well rounded life it is necessary to sometimes to find goals and activities that encourage you feel complete. Perhaps there is something you wanted to accomplish or something from your childhood that you enjoyed. Get involved in art, camping, model building, etc... that provides meaning outside of work.

Fitness:

As we get older our health suffers. Reducing stress and avoiding medical complications requires us to get into a fitness habit. Try walking everyday, start jogging, or play sports with others like volleyball or softball. Make sure you stick with your program and shed the weight.

It isn't difficult to make changes that round out your life when you start getting in touch with yourself. When you get older you are unlikely to look back on your life and say, "I wish I could have spent more time working".  You are more likely to think you should have spent more time with your family, doing the things you enjoy, or finding other pursuits help you feel complete.