Work Life – ARE YOU BALANCED ENOUGH?

To most people, a work life balance means, leaving office at a decent hour, making time for your hobbies, having time to exercise and spend quality time with loved ones. Well that is difficult enough to achieve, being a working woman. It is not surprising that on some level we have all bought into the ideas that overwork is bad and that is not worth the impact on our relationships, health and ultimately productivity and life satisfaction. Too often when people are struggling with work life balance, they actually are struggling with unrealistic expectations.

One way to think about work life balance is with a concept known as “The Four Burners Theory”. Your life is represented by a stove with four burners on it. Each burner is representing one major quadrant of your life.

• Burner ONE represents your family
• Burner TWO is your friends
• Burner THREE is health
• Burner FOUR is work

The four burners theory says that “In order to be successful you have to cut off one of your burners. And in order to be really successful, you have to cut off two”.

Our mind is always whirling around the four burners and could think that I can run with friends, health and family together. In our modern society, we want it all. But if you think of a realistic approach, you can’t keep on all four burners at a time on full flame. At certain time you must turn off any burner to be burning a single one. Lately, we have realized that we can’t be experts in everything we want. We need to pick and choose. So each burner involves decisions.

 

Life rarely allows you to keep it all four burners going at once. By giving up one dream for a short while you may be able to maximize another. May be you need to let a burner dim for this season.

In my life, I’ve let certain burners go out whack for extended periods of time. I’ve had family burner that burned so hot that it almost caught the entire stove on fire when the kids arrived in the family. Unfortunately, I had let the health burner just flicker for years while I gained weight and got badly out of shape.

When the work burner was going high, where you are required to work for longer hours and in stressful situations. This dimmed the family relationships. When I looked back, I definitely needed more control of my stove. I needed to have even flame across all the burners, I wanted to regulate the flame. So I started simmering certain flame rather than allowing it to burn fully. By doing this I could restrict my time for each task.

With four different quadrants, it’s hard to know what burners to keep going on and which ones to go dim or off. Each burner has its own control. While I can’t focus all my time on one  burner without consequences, I can maximize time I have for each one. We can delegate tasks, we can spend our time on what we are good at and outsource some of the rest. We can manage our burners by focusing a particular time on a certain burner. This will allow you to master a particular area.

When you are young, you can put the family and friends on a simmer mode and concentrate on your career. Once you start a family regulating the burners is very essential. You can’t run the friends and work burners fully. It’s time to put them on a simmer along with your health. However, motherhood comes with its own challenges. Having a child is a huge life decision and we want to be prepared in every way – physically, mentally, emotionally and financially.

Moreover, female solidarity proves indispensable in times when the men in our lives don’t understand us well. Women, still have to do the lion’s share of housework despite going out to work in ever increasing number. Researchers found that women spent three times as long on domestic chores, such as cooking, food shopping, looking after kids and sick members.

Men are significantly contributing towards mending faulty items and repair work around the house.

It’s a matter of autonomy. I think many women today, there’s a need to have control over your destiny. Life is precious. It’s easy to think you are not smart enough or creative enough to start something new. But don’t stop or think you will fail and start over, you can ever predict how far you can make it.

In today\’s fast-paced world, achieving a work life balance has become increasingly challenging. However, amidst the demands of our careers, it is vital to recognize the importance of self-acceptance. By prioritizing our well-being and embracing our authentic selves, we can navigate the complexities of work life balancing with grace and resilience.

By letting go of the need for constant external validation and focusing on cultivating genuine connections, we can create a harmonious equilibrium between our personal and professional lives. Embracing self-acceptance not only enhances our overall happiness and fulfillment, but also empowers us to lead more purposeful and balanced lives. So let us embark on this journey of self-discovery and self-compassion, recognizing that true success and well-being come not from striving for perfection, but from finding harmony in our work-life balancing act.