Work/Life Balance Resources (Part 5/5)

Work/Life Balance Resources (Part 5/5)

Our past 4 days have hopefully brought you tons of value and a better perspective on what “work/life balance” looks like for you. Here are a few more internal & external resources to help you out because we do not profess to have it all figured out:

Blog Posts:

Podcasts:

Books:

We sincerely hope this series has helped you. From the EA’s to the bookkeepers, to the CEO of VEA; we all have family time as one of our top core values. As we travel this road we will do everything we can to help you on your journey as well.

If there is anything we can do to help you out, please do not hesitate to reach out.

– Derek Burbidge
Manager of Sales & Marketing for VEA

 

The Work/Life Balance Conundrum (Part 2/5)

The Work/Life Balance Conundrum (Part 2/5)

The biggest issue with the self-help industry is the moulds that are created and the box that you are seemingly being forced into. I almost want to say “unfortunately” here but rather I will choose the word “thankfully” because thankfully there is no such thing as “one size fits all” when it comes to a solution.

If you have read our blogs you will see that we prefer to give advice coming from what worked for us. We leave it open for you to try it so you can take what works, and throw away the rest. Through trial and error, you can come up with a custom solution that works for you.

For example, when it comes to sleep habits:

  • You can read 2 blogs, one tells you to get 4 hours because that is what the most successful people do
  • The other says 7-8 hours where you go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day.
  • You try 4 hours, it doesn’t work so you go for 7 hours strategy from 10pm-5am and you feel refreshed.

We should never feel guilty if something worked for someone else but does not work for us, it just means we need to adjust and try something else. Work/life balance is not impossible, but each season may look different. When we think balance, we think 50% one way, 50% the other. As the Father of a newborn and a toddler, I can tell you that my life right now is not 50/50. It is more of a 70/30, family over work right now.

As we create routines and our newborn starts to settle in, that will come closer to 50/50. It may even have to sway to more work to make up for that time, maybe a 60/40.

We have a pie chart exercise in part 4 of this series that you can see what your life looks like right now and where you want it to be. DO NOT be married to those percentages for the rest of your life, be flexible and re-visit it in different seasons of life.

As always, if there is anything we can do to help you out, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Check out Part 3: “Life Is Like Riding a Bicycle.
See our intro to the series “Work/Life Balance – Introduction.

– Derek Burbidge
Manager of Sales & Marketing for VEA

Work/Life Balance – Introduction (Part 1/5)

Work/Life Balance – Introduction (Part 1/5)

This is the single biggest topic of discussion that I have encountered when talking about life in general amongst work associates, friends, family, and other groups.  The majority of people that I have heard speak on the topic of their own life balance rate themselves as ‘imbalanced’… usually far too heavily weighted on work.  In fact, there is a common work-life balance quote that goes No one on his death bed ever said, ‘I wish I had spent more time at the office”

Let’s face it, the average North American working a 40 hour work week spends 40% of their waking hours at work – not including travel to and from, overtime, or other off-time projects – so that statistic alone makes it extremely difficult to achieve a balanced life.  The 7 most common areas of life that we need to work in keeping balance with are:

  1. Mental Health (mind)
  2. Physical Health (body)
  3. Spiritual Health (soul)
  4. Family
  5. Social (relationships outside of family, recreation, fun)
  6. Career/Business
  7. Financial

We all, however, have the freedom of choice so that we can decide what our priorities are for our own lives and how much energy and commitment we want to put into these areas.  Also, keep in mind that sacrifices in other areas of life are necessary to enhance the ones that you want to improve upon.

There is a great, well-known story about how truly full our lives are these days, and how to balance it all for the greatest happiness possible:

One day a philosophy professor brought a large glass jar and some beautiful river rocks to class with him. “Raise your hands when the jar is full,” he instructed his students, and he began putting the big rocks into the jar.  Soon the lid would no longer fit, and all the students raised their hands to indicate the jar was full.  The professor then pulled out a bag of smaller black and white pebbles and poured them into the jar.  As the pebbles rolled down, they filled the little gaps between the big river rocks.  The students smiled and raised their hands.  This time the jar was completely full. 

Then the professor produced a bag of sand and began pouring it into the jar.  When the sand had filled the tiny gaps between the rocks and the pebbles he triumphantly placed the lid on the jar and asked his class if the jar was now full.  They all clapped and agreed, “Yes it is full!”  At that point, the professor opened the lid and slowly poured two cups of coffee into the jar.  The coffee completely filled the tiniest gaps between the rocks, the pebbles, and the grains of sand.  “Now, life is very much like this jar,” he said. 

“The river rocks represent the most important things in life, such as your ethics, your family, your loved ones and your health.  Even if you lost everything else, your life would still be full with these most important things in it.  The pebbles are the things in our lives that are pretty important – but our happiness shouldn’t depend on them.  Things like our job, house, car, etc.  Finally, the sand represents everything else – the countless small, busy things that fill our lives.  If we fill up our jar with sand first, then we won’t have any room for the river rocks or pebbles.  If we fill our lives with just the small stuff or the busy stuff, we won’t have any room or time for the things that mean the most to us.” 

After a brief moment of silence on of the students asked, “Professor, what does the coffee represent?”.  “Ah, I’m glad you asked,” replied the professor. “It means that, no matter how full your life is, there is always room for a cup of coffee with a friend.”

After reading this story, we have a few questions for you to ponder in the attached PDF to help you structure your life to be a little more balanced.

Work life balance worksheet download button

See Part 2 of our 5 part series, “The Work-Life Balance Conundrum“.

– Nick Thompson
Co-Founder & President of VEA