There is no such thing as work/life balance. I’ve always wondered how our work got separated from the rest of our life!
Without life, you’d obviously not have any work, but without work, you can still have a life.
This means that this work/life balance debate is a distraction. Instead, focusing on a whole life balance will get you the calm, ease and confidence you are looking for. There are many more things in life than work!
Action – Draw a large circle and divide it into sections so that it looks like a pie. Label each slice with an area of your life that is important to you, such as money, career, health, family relationships, fun time etc.
Using the centre of the pie as 0 and the outside ring as 10, place a dot in each section that represents how satisfied you are in that area. So a 5 in the area of money would be a dot half-way between the centre of the pie and the outside rim in that section.
Next, connect all the dots. How balanced does that circle look now?
This is a great visual exercise that can help you set goals in all areas of your life so that you feel more balanced and centered.
(I find many people are shocked when they see their pie isn’t as ‘balanced’ as they thought it would be. What did you discover? Please leave your response in the comments box.)
What a great visual! I teach 12-13 year olds in Sunday School and I am going to figure out the best way to use this idea with them. I am trying to help them develop good goal making processes and this is a fabulous idea. You can do it any time and see where you are at.
Thanks Nancy.
yes, i agree, it is a very good visual. i drew out a pie chart yesterday and it really makes you look at your whole life balance much differently.