I can’t remember when was the last time I took a holiday.
A holiday is a luxury when you work for yourself.
Especially when trying to pick yourself up from one failed business and build a new one while also having lots of debt to pay!
Many say a regular break is essential to staying productive.
There’s this thing called work-life balance that lots of people seem to be obsessed with.
The truth is, I’m not keen on the work-life balance thing.
It might sound funny. But I love working. I always have.
I love having goals, sweating over them, and ticking them off as achievements (or failures).
I have many goals. They give me meaning and direction.
When I get obsessed with something, the line between work and life gets blurry.
So work-life balance is one topic I wouldn’t advocate for the way many others do in the personal development field.
When you start your career or want to build your own business, it’s inevitable that work will demand a fair amount of your time.
Still, you feel alive more than ever with a great sense of fulfilment, getting your feet wet or building something out of nothing.
You do so voluntarily and happily, with a sense of devotion. You hardly feel stressed or too busy.
What it tells me then is that a work-life balance is really about job satisfaction.
Job Satisfaction
My job used to cause me stress.
I couldn’t switch off after work, thinking about what I could’ve done more or should’ve done differently.
I dreaded going to work in the morning and detested the backstabbing working environment.
A holiday was bliss—a reset button to release negative energy enough to last until the next holiday!
Now that I’m doing my own thing, I do constantly think about my work, but it never causes stress.
Instead, I get excited. I sleep so deeply each night. I can’t wait to start my day every morning.
The contrast makes me realise that needing a break or dreaming about perfect work-life balance may have more to do with job satisfaction than anything else.
I’ve always admired people who are so passionate about what they do that they often forget the passing of time.
I’d dreamed of finding such passion and losing myself in it.
Even with my not-so-happy but demanding job, I didn’t wish for work-life balance or more breaks.
I desperately wished to find my own obsession, a passion that so many people seem to find easily.
If you feel you desperately need work-life balance, it could be because you don’t feel fulfilled in your current role.
Begin a passion project outside of work. It’ll bring positive energy back into your life.
Who knows where your passion project will lead you?
Making a Living
If our work is primarily to make a living, pursuing work-life balance makes sense.
After the basic necessities are covered, there isn’t so much incentive to put in more hours.
You’d rather “live” more and spend time with friends and family.
You’d dream of retirement, sipping a cocktail on a hot, exotic beach.
But if work is also your passion, even after the basic living essentials are covered, you would still devote your time to it because that’s what you love doing more than anything.
Win the Lottery. Dump Your Job?
If you won the lottery, would you dump your job immediately?
If your answer is yes, I’ll hazard the guess that you’re a big advocate for work-life balance. ha!
It also means, though, that your search for passion is not done yet.
When to Take a Break
Of course, no matter how much you love your job, you ought to be clever about how much your body can take.
There’s a difference between bad stress and healthy stress.
When you have the former and don’t give yourself a suitable rest, it can take its toll on you.
You find it hard to switch off after work. You can’t sleep and get snappy and angry at little things, being easily irritated.
You frequently make mistakes or can’t get fully engaged in what you do, and you feel tired all the time.
These are signs of stress overload.
Your brain is signalling you to take a break.
Final Thoughts
Listen to your body’s signals—bothmental and physical state—that tell you to take a break.
If you long for work-life balance, think about your job satisfaction.
Or experiment with something new in your spare time and look for a passion project.
Something you’d be so passionate about you’d continue to be doing whether you hit the jackpot or not.
I bet you won’t think so much about work-life balance then.
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