Many of us experience a personal, professional, and monetary need to achieve, and because of this, realizing a healthy work-life balance is challenging.
Sometimes the more we try to find the 'sweet spot' in the work/life balance issue, the harder it seems to realize. Busy lives, ever-changing schedules, crises of all degrees, overload of information... it can be easy to loose track of how we got here in the first place, and even forget what it is that actually makes us happy, let alone keeping it a priority.
There are a lot of ideas out there directed at 'helping find the balance', but honestly, they don't really work, at least not for very long. And, if you aren't sustaining balance for very long, or you aren't able to reestablish it fairly quickly, then you don't have a REAL solution. Band-aid fixes and simple tips or tools don't solve the problem.
Employers can assist employees on the issue of balance by offering opportunities such as a flexible work schedule, enhanced paid time off policies, or even company-sponsored family events and activities. But these are all superficial solutions - good and helpful - but they don't address the source of the problem.
Work-life balance is deeply personal and to experience improvement - sustained improvement - the focus needs to be intentionally directed at "why" there is imbalance in the first place. What is really getting in the way? The answer is often different than you think.
Our lives are made up of the choices we make, and while there is often a lot that is out of our direct control, there is much that can be done at the source of where our choices originate. Focus here, and creating balance is not merely a fleeting experience only to be lost due to well-developed habits and patterns, but an opening to an effective method of addressing the stress when imbalance shows up. And potentially making 'balance' the rule, rather than the exception.
Diving deep to challenge the way you make choices in your life, (a sometimes scary and exciting thing to do) is the first step. The result: real power for your life, not just day-to-day, but for your ultimate goals and all of your relationships.
Explore what is really in the way of achieving work/life satisfaction - your choices - what they are, how you make them, and what (or who) are the key influencers. Know this and you can begin to learn how you can confidently, and intentionally, hold the various elements in your life without feeling like you are being pulled, too hard, in any one direction.
Spend more time not just doing what makes you happy, but being happy.