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Situation re-evaluation: creating balance
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Part of self-knowledge is the ability to acheive balance, and job-seekers rank work-life balance as second only to compensation, according to a 2009 Corporate Executive Board survey. The board surveyed over 50,000 global workers and results indicated employees who feel they have achieved work-life balance work, on average, 21 percent harder than employees who feel they have not achieved work-life balance.
According to professional organizer and life coach Dorothy Breininger, founder and CEO of the Los Angeles-based Center for Organization and Goal Planning, “If you can say in any given month: ‘I have equal parts happiness and fulfillment at work and in my personal life,’ you have achieved work-life balance.”
Breininger recommends taking a look at life aspects such as health, finances, relationships, work, home and spirituality, then asking, “Do you feel pretty good in most areas with only one area needing attention? Then [you have] work-life balance.” However, “If you are constantly running late, paying bills late, incurring fees, have no time off or vacation, missing doctors’ appointments or forgetting others’ special events – you may want to see what’s out of whack. Where there’s difficulty in one area of life, chances are, it will show up in most areas of life,” she says.
If you need to make a change to create work-life balance, go for it, Breininger says. “Just remember to give yourself a review date, an end date or 'renewal'” date for any job you step into.” She adds, “We all face consequences and trade-offs with choices; and a choice can be changed if it is no longer working favorably.”
There is little reward without hard work, and when it comes to creating balance: “It takes a lot of work to develop a great understanding of who you are, how you tick, and why you tick,” says Lynn Benson, MSW, president of Delphi Health Products.
Whether through therapy or self-assessment, simply determining “what makes you tick, how you tick, and why you tick that way,” is Benson’s recommended first step in managing the chaos. “Take a daily inventory, ask yourself what worked that day, what didn’t and why, to stay in tune with yourself and your needs,” she says.
When Benson, who had worked her way through the ranks, eventually managing a child care facility, found herself working 24-7 it was time for a change. After starting therapy, gathering information about how she was feeling and analyzing how it was affecting her life, Benson re-evaluated her career options.
The self-knowledge she gained from therapy sessions made her more receptive to kindness from others. In fact, shortly after she began the therapy, she met and started dating the man who is now her husband, Steven Benson. During that time, Benson also earned her master’s degree in social work, where she “gained a much greater appreciation and understanding of family dynamics.”
According to Ron Knaus, DO, psychiatrist, sports medicine physician and CEO of the Tampa, Fla.-based Peak Energy Institute, “Balance is stability, flexibility and ability; it is never solid, it moves with the world.”
As the mother of two young daughters, Benson agrees that balance is fluid and requires regular situation re-evaluation.
After spending four years as a social worker while raising a family, it was again time for Benson to reassess her situation. Something just didn’t feel right because the time she devoted to social work was beginning to encroach on time with her growing family.
“While I was at my last position as a social worker, I felt like I wasn’t able to have the life balance that I needed.” Benson says. “At that point, I had [an] opportunity to start a business with my mom to create The Senior Organizer (HCI, 2006), which was a fulfilling experience that allowed me the flexibility that I needed to be more involved with my kids. I was fortunate to have that opportunity,” she says.
Shortly after Benson and her mother, Debby S. Bitticks, joined forces to form Los Angeles-based Delphi Health Products, creating The Senior Organizer, they partnered with Breininger to create the 2007 Chicken Soup - Life Lessons for Busy Moms (HCI, 2007).
According to Breininger, their most important tip to begin creating balance is to “review an area that seems to be the most out-of-control. Discover the area of your life that is suffering the most and let that be your guide to [implementing a work-life] balance.”
For more info:
Work-Life Balance
5 Tips for Work-Life Balance
Work-Life Balance During a Recession
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