Written by: Sarah Moody, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Hear me out on this one.
I have a radical way of thinking about work-life balance.
How much time you spend in your life working, and not working, is a decision.
It is a decision to love yourself so hard, that you feel deserving of intentionally creating a big juicy life you’re totally f*ing in love with.
By definition, work-life balance is about establishing a stable and sustainable way to allocate your time that aligns with your desires, goals, dreams, and feeling fulfilled.
It is about deciding how much time to allocate to your career and all parts of your life outside of your career. Areas such as self-care + exercise, time with loved ones, enjoying hobbies and passions, finances, and causes you’re actively involved in.
While there’s no magic formula for balancing work and life, nor one sure-fire amount of time you should allot to one versus the other, work-life balance means you’re equally fulfilled by the duality of your personal life and your professional life.
You will know you’re on a path that serves you when you notice how you feel most of the day.
Are they mostly feel determination, calm, confidence, and courage? And when you notice overwhelm, or worry, do you know how to process those more challenging feelings?
Or are you feeling most overwhelmed, stressed, and worried throughout the day? If you are, this is ok, but it is a clue you need to change habits at work, identity limiting beliefs that create these feelings, and practice closing your eyes and feeling a felt sense of safety in your body. Here’s a quick walk through on how to allow and process a challenging emotion.
Achieving a work-life balance is about being intentional. If you are a manager, it’s important to not only find that balance for yourself and lead by example but to also help your team find their balance, as well.
The key to achieving work-life balance relies on not just what you do and how you feel while you’re working i.e., doing meaningful work, finding purpose in your work, feeling like what you do matters, and that you make a positive contribution, but what you do and how you feel outside of work, as well.
So identifying and finding fulfillment in hobbies or having go-to methods for restoration are equally important to strike that balance.
Work-life balance will look different to everyone. It is important to discover and make a decision about what work-life balance looks like for you.
Many limiting beliefs that drive this imbalance comes from the influence of society:
Society has conditioned us to believe that hard work is something we wear like a badge of honor.
What is it like for you to witness someone who doesn’t work hard?
Do you judge them and think they’re lazy, shallow, or not living up to their human potential?
Be curious and ask yourself. Why isn't it safe to not work hard?
I used to think I had to work hard to create amazing results.
I decided to break up with that way of thinking because I had zero work/life balance and lived a constantly frantic overwhelmed life.
I now work smarter.
What if you dropped the identity of “hard worker''? Who would you be?
A smart creative human who works smart and creates amazing results?
We also live in a society that is obsessed with productivity. Society equates more deliverables and better results with “we’re enough.”
And then there’s what we think about our worthiness:
Worthiness is a set of beliefs we have about ourselves.
Brené Brown’s definition: The conviction that you are good enough as you are, flaws and all, AND that you deserve to be loved.
We often invest too much time and energy into work so we can prove to ourselves that we’re good enough.
The inner critic is always reminding you that you’re not smart enough to lead that project, or you don’t have enough time to get those results completed by that time. All of this “I’m not enough, or there’s not enough” is scarcity thinking.
“I’M NOT SMART ENOUGH”= NOT FEELING WORTHY
“I’M SMART ENOUGH” = FEELING WORTHY
A critical component to having a work/life balance is feeling your worthiness. Feeling in your body that “you’re enough”
This will mean breaking up with scarcity thinking, and shifting into the magical place of “I’m perfectly imperfect!” “I’m enough” “I’m more than enough”
So this is why it is simple. Make a decision.
It’s decision time. Do you want a life you LOVE?
Why? Why not?
Do you like your reasons?
If you do want a life you love, you will need to define a stable and sustainable way to allocate your time that aligns with your desires, goals, dreams, and feelings fulfilled.
And then I want you to make a decision about what work/life balance and this life you love look like.
My coach Brooke works three days a week
I work about 40 hours a week max and sometimes work on a Sunday afternoon which feels amazing.
You’ll know by how you FEEL in your body if you like this decision.
And remember. We make decisions and then I suggest you stick to it for at least 30 days before you make another decision.
You will need to break up with perfectionism.
As high-achievers, it's easy to want to deliver A+ work all the time. This will make work/life balance and creating that amazing life you love very difficult.
Deciding to drop these self-imposed definitions of "perfect" work and embrace a belief like B+ work is enough will provide the time to create that balance in your life.
Decide the time for self-care + exercise, being with loved ones, enjoying hobbies and passions, finances, and causes you’re actively involved in.
DECIDE to love yourself so hard that you feel deserving of intentionally creating a big juicy life you’re totally f*ing in love with.
Sarah Moody, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Sarah is the only certified coach who:
Recovered from decades of anorexia and bulimia.
Has been a tech veteran for the past 20 years and started a company from scratch after getting fired from a job in 2001. Clients are some of the largest software enterprises in the world, and the company has grown by over 400% in revenue.
Has coached hundreds of clients and is on a mission to help other high achievers like herself, break through burnout and bring magic back into their career and life.
