Ryan A Graves.com

Aren’t you getting tired of hearing people talk about the Work – Life balance? I am, and it’s mostly because I don’t understand the concept. It’s not that I work 80 hours a week, or than I don’t have a social life, because I do, I have a great one. The confusion is derived from my confusion around what we are balancing. Things need balancing when they are opposites right? Black and white have grey; good and evil have, well, humans. But why do work and life need balancing? If your work and you’re life are such polar opposites you are definitely in the wrong line of work. If you hate your job so much that you don’t consider it part of your life then we have issues.

People wonder why they’re not performing well at work, Peter Berner, author of Career Moments would tell you, “You’re in the wrong job!” Somebody can do a job without actually doing anything, but nobody can do work without doing anything. If you find a career or work that you enjoy it can become your life and that is OK! Believe it or not you don’t actually have to hate your job.

So, forget trying to balance your work and your life. Let your work become a part of your life and something you enjoy. Enjoy your life. I guarantee that when you find work that becomes your life and that is enjoyable the rewards will be exponential. The largest of those rewards may even be financial rewards which can also improve other aspects of your life. All of a sudden when you begin to enjoy your work the need to balance is gone.

Follow-up post 4/2/08:

This is this weeks Career Moment from Peter Berner. I thought it applied well to the work life balance struggle that many people face.

GETTING THE JOB YOU LOVE
People think that finding a job you truly love requires a sort of divine revelation where one day the master plan for our career fulfillment is revealed to us. That rarely happens. No, for most of us the work of getting to a job that you love is a long, slow process of exploration, expectation, and inspiration. It requires that one listen to the urges and passions that call them to do certain types of things. It demands that we discover what gives us pleasure, satisfaction, meaning and purpose beyond the paycheck that meets our daily needs. Getting to the job you love is often more about the journey itself than the destination. As long as you are moving in the direction of your dreams you are on the right path. A life spent getting closer to what you love to do, even if you never get all the way there, will always beat a life of wondering what it would have been like to try.
Take great care of yourself- and your career! Peter Berner