8 Steps to Work-Life Harmony
Work-Life balance is a setup for failure. 
While seeking work-life harmony, you’ll find that there is an oxymoron. Think about it like this, is work something that is defined by your life. How about your life, is it defined by your work? Is there a balance there that equally becomes an important part of the equation? When we are young, we are taught that for work-life balance, we have to give both an equal amount of balance in our life. This leads us to feeling guilt and remorse, because it is impossible to devote that kind of attention to both areas of our lives.
Seek Work-Life Harmony
Instead, work-life harmony is a better choice. This is where you assign areas of work and life with the appropriate amount of devotion. Work-life harmony is a holistic approach that is achievable through eight essential items.
The first is to be clear about your purpose of life. This is key for work-life harmony. You aren’t here by accident. Instead, God has a purpose for you and you need to embrace that and accept it. When you devote the right energy to the area of your life that matters, you’ll find you do have a work-life harmony that you can take pride in. Before you know it, all areas of your life will begin to greatly improve.
Next, is that you need to seek contentment over happiness. The world lies to you and will tell you that you can have everything you desire. The truth is, most people never have every little thing they desire. This is a psychological term that is unachievable and when you recognize that, the process to having work-life harmony becomes easier. You can be content with your life and that is absolutely enough. But you also need to understand that if you drive yourself for pure happiness, you’re always going to fall short of that.
Seasons of life is also an important thing to understand. Life has seasons in it. We have our Spring, our Summer, our Fall, and then our Winter. These sections of our lives have different milestones that we hit. Our careers, family, and other areas of our lives are all affected by these items. So when you look at work-life harmony, you want to make sure you understand that and you work on working on a harmonious life, in the season you are in.
Establishing reasonable boundaries is critical. When you have your purpose, core values and beliefs in place, it is time to make wise decisions. These decisions affect your talent and your time. Make sure you set up a system that promotes a healthy work-life harmony and allows you to continue to flow in the right direction. Don’t get into situations full of guilt, tension, pain, or suffering as they will ultimately pull you back from the direction you are supposed to be headed.
You must be present in your life. That doesn’t mean simply being alive. You need to get in the mindset of work-life harmony and understand that you have to live in the moment and look at how things affect you at that time. You must remain engaged at all times and invest yourself in the things that are affecting you right now. Yes, planning ahead is fine, but if you ignore current issues, you ultimately set yourself up for problems along the way.
As part of this process, you also need to align your actions with your values. This is important because it will guide you to deeper understandings of things. Why is it that you do what you do? What values are in each of the areas of your life? When you want to advance an area, what kind of things you can do? When you answer those questions and understand that each activity that either brings you closer or further has a long lasting effect on your progress, you are more likely to make sensible choices about the things you can do to reach the goals of your job.
When you meet people, make sure that you clarify your expectations with them. This means working with them so they understand their planned future and current roles. Know what they need from you to be happy, at the same time let them understand what your needs are. Since people are a social system, we must interact to thrive and that means ensuring that everyone has their minimum needs met. When there is disconnection between key people, such as a father and his children, it can have an impact on each of their lives that continues for years to come. It is critical for work-life harmony that you find a balance here in these areas that matter and work on building up relationships you have in order to avoid a situation where you are ultimately left wishing you had done more down the road.
Perhaps the most important thing is to always challenge the status quo. Don’t just simply go through the motions and do what you have to do, in order to get it done. Instead, take the time to step back and to begin to look at some of the ways that you can make a bigger difference in things. While you can keep things small, you are stifling your growth. Of course, you can go big and chase your dreams and achieve work-life harmony. But there is some balance that is necessary. Try to find out what this means for you and don’t ultimately spite yourself in the process, because you decided that it was more important to just get by, when someone else is pushing hard and ultimately getting the promotions you know that you are more than qualified for.
I am going to be honest with you, work-life harmony won’t come easy. This is a process that will take time and you’ll need to do some trial and error. Some of the things you attempt will help you to soar, others will cause you to hit the ground. But when you pick yourself up off the ground, that is when you succeed. That is when you realize you have everything you need to ultimately find success along the way. You deserve all the happiness and blessings in your life that are available to you. It just requires you to give the devotion, passion, and time it requires to ultimately achieve that area of success.
