Like many, I first learned about work-life balance when I started my career 20 years ago. It took me 14 years to understand that there is no work-life balance. There is only life.
Work-Life Balance
Every hour at work is a life hour. If I spend it wishing for the day to end, I’m wasting precious time. And this is my choice, conscious or unconscious.
There is no work-life balance. There is only life.
“I realized a while ago that it’s a problem to look forward to weekends and holidays. First, it takes the joy out of the everyday, because you’re living in the future and suffering the rest of time. Second, you have accepted a way of life in which most of your time is spent suffering.” (Naval Ravikant, Happiness)
Let’s look at it at scale.
Using some average numbers, say, you spend 40 hours per week working. In a year we have 52 weeks. 40 x 52 is 2080 hours, or 87 full 24-hour days. And over 10 years, work will account for 870 days = almost 2,5 years. Would you like to enjoy these years?
Do you often wish your work week to pass faster so you can enjoy holidays? Do you often think about work when on holidays?
Joy is a skill
Once I embraced the concept that all time is life, I realized something crucial: joy is not just a feeling, it’s a skill that can be learned.
I was pessimistic, easily offended, and spent time complaining about unfairness. But then I realized that it was my choice to feel that way. And I made another choice—to learn a new skill to feel joy in whatever I do.
It took me years and many efforts. But now I enjoy the time I have, including work. And so can you, because it is a skill and it just requires practice.
Joy is applicable to work
Many smart people think that joy is for stupid people, not for them because they understand too much. Many entrepreneurs and business owners think it can be counterproductive.
In fact, not feeling joy is counterproductive because it directly impacts the quality of decisions.
I’ve included joy as a concept in my leadership. Since then, I’ve seen better and better results. How can I tell? People in my team and company are motivated, they feel joy, they want to spend their time doing what we do.
And I can say for sure because it has not always been that way for me. This change only happened after years of practice. The message I want to tell you is not how hard it is or how long it takes, but that it is possible to feel joy at work, at home, with friends, with colleagues, on your own, walking, working, sitting, eating—you can find joy in everything you do.
When I now start working with a new team, and I implement joy as part of the work culture, people have no other choice but accept the challenge to start feeling better about what they do at work. And this is a win-win situation for employees and for business owners. Because happy employees are more productive.
3 Ideas We’ve Covered
So these are the ideas I wanted to share with you in this post that changed my life for the better:
- There is no work-life balance—all 24/7 is LIFE
- Joy is a skill and it can be trained
- Joy is applicable to work and it drives efficiency
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You might also like this 5-minute team assessment: Team Efficiency-Wellbeing Assessment and How to foster innovation in the workplace.
You might also like this quiz: How Stressed Are You? This will help you understand where you are now. High stress usually correlates with low levels of joy.
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