Work Life Balance

Are you like me, crazy sick of hearing about creating a work-life balance?

For years these have been the buzz words, be happy, create a work-life balance, find something that you love and you will not have to work, make sure that you spend equal amounts of time on work, home, you, pleasure, fun. It's hard and very confusing.

"The key is in not spending time, but investing it." Stephen Covey

I love this quote, and it truly makes me think. Do you believe you can have balance in your life if your work or personal life is crap?

Have you ever known any of these people:-

• Someone who cannot wait for Friday to come

• Someone who is so cranky on a Sunday knowing that the weekend is almost over

• Someone who complains about everything that happens at work or at home

• Someone who never has anything nice to say about work or home

• Someone who stays at work longer than is necessary simply because they don't want to be at home

• Someone who knows when their next sick day is due so they can have another day off work

I have known a few of the above people in my life, and if I was honest, I have had problems in relationships and jobs where I have felt exactly like a few of the above comments.

Sometimes we have to take a job simply because it's close to home, the hours are good, or the money feeds our family. Still, if we were honest, it is something other than what we want to do. It is not something that we write on our Facebook profile for all the world to read it is something that doesn't make us happy. But could it - make us happy, that is?

What if a perfect work/life balance meant we invested time in the task? What if it was about being present in the moment?

I remember having one of those jobs in my life, a call centre job, which I would never have taken if my circumstances were not as they were, but do you know what - I made the most of that job. I made it my mission to treat all the phone complaints (around 95% of calls) with the highest level of respect, to turn around their days, to have them walk away with maybe not an answer or a resolution to their problem but at the very least with an opinion that someone cared. I walked away each day knowing that I had brightened someone's day and shown that I cared. I knew it was not a long-term job for me, but for the time I was there, I was invested. I now tell people about my experience in the call centre and what I learned.

The same applies in our personal life, regardless of whom we are with. What if we gave them time? What if we bring our best selves to the situation? What if we were present 100% and had an intention in our minds that we would do everything to be in this conversation, situation or event with intent and purpose? What if we invested time into our relationships, what if we invested time into our jobs or careers, what if we invested time into ourselves to be the best version that we could be? If we lived believing that we could grow everything in our life if our time was invested wisely.

I believe the vast majority of us do not invest time with the hope of a return, we spend or waste time.

We spend time at work complaining, we spend time at work escaping, we spend time at home complaining, we spend time at home escaping, we spend time not being present, and we spend time on things that offer no return on investment.

Imagine what life would look like if we looked at ways that we could serve someone, make someone's day brighter, deepen a relationship, spend time in fun, laugh with a child, and be with a significant partner. The list is long on how to get a return on your time investment.