Modern life, whatever it means, has made us strive for more. All of us have this innate desire to progress and grow in our profession, career, business and acquiring more fame, wealth, land, accolades, etc.
Although growth may be a noble mission, we may get carried away and cross the thin line where progress may involve running in a rat race and competing with others rather than oneself.
Hunger for power may replace hunger for growth without our realization.
It may lead to being uncalm in life, restless, preoccupied with thoughts carried over from the workplace. The zeal to be ahead with the price of being eternally clouded with plenty of decisions that need to be taken on a daily basis. One gets drowned in the ocean of pending missions that we have created for ourselves.
Instead of living the moment, one always stays at the next moment, or the one after that.
As a result, cultivation of hobbies, pursuits of personal pleasures and development of important relationships suffer!
What’s worse is that before one can realize and rectify, the clock of life passes by at a pace that we have created.
It saddens me to see my younger colleagues at the beginning of their career, wary of their destination and difficult-to-define-success, slogging harder than necessary, at the expense of their health and happiness.
Not playing enough, not enjoying enough!
However, it’s possible to lead a better life without compromising on our aspirations even in this era of globalization, competition, and information overload.
Some simple techniques that help are
Staying at the moment– doing whatever one does with full focus and undivided attention improves productivity. Switch off that mobile and it’s alerted and do the job at hand. You can do it faster. And what’s great is you will finish your work in time and have enough time to spare for your other aspects of life such as family, health, hobbies, and friends.
Planning the day– do it a night before and adhere to it. Make sure that an 8-hour job remains 8 hours. Avoid taking your work home. Even in the head.
Make pigeon holes out of your time. If it’s work, work it is. If it’s family time, that’s where you concentrate.
Take out some ME time daily for a walk in the park or meditation alone. When you talk to yourself, you know what you want to do or don’t want to do in your life. And of course, when alone, you have the pleasure of enjoying your own amazing company!
Simple. Right?
So, let’s bring back the Work-life balance in our lives!
As a wise man said- working for a livelihood is not equal to living life!