Many of my coaching clients and guests on the podcast, Focus on WHY, speak of achieving balance in life, more specifically they speak of striking the perfect life/work balance and yet they comment on how it feels like an impossible, uphill struggle. Do you strive for achieving this life/work balance too?
What would happen if you looked at this conundrum differently? What would life/work balance look like through the lens of purpose? Instead of aiming to achieve a balance between life and work, what about achieving a balance of purpose and enjoyment across all areas of your life?
Shift your thinking to notice how you currently experience meaning and joy in life and work and this will enable you to recognise a different and more sustainable balance of fulfilment.
Viktor Frankl identified that purpose and meaning can be found in these four main areas of life; in creating a work or doing a deed or by experiencing goodness, truth and beauty; by experiencing nature, works of art and culture; by loving someone; and in the stand you take, how you adapt and react to unavoidable limits on life possibilities.
Become aware of how and where you are making a difference to others in life. You will likely see that purpose is all around you and that your life holds more meaning and purpose than you perhaps initially accounted for.
Life takes on meaning and purpose in every action, in every moment, through your love and through your suffering. Look for all the moments of purpose and meaning in your life and recognise how they are serving you even when you may not think that they are. There may be tasks, responsibilities and activities in your life which are mundane and laborious but they do serve a purpose and have relevance, significance or importance in some way.
Purpose and meaning are the magic ingredients that create a fulfilling life. Joy and happiness should not be pursued but will instead ensue through your purposeful activities.
Is your life more purposeful than you imagined?
Focus on Balance!
ACTION POINT: Stop chasing life/work balance and instead focus on balancing purpose and enjoyment.
Amy
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