Hello and welcome to Part 4 of our series on Work-Life Balance.

We’ve looked at  work… and life , explored how to achieve balance, and highlighted some ways to handle stuff that scares the wotsits off you.

Today it’s time to think about what will inspire you as you create and maintain your particular balance. You don’t have to go it alone, there’s a world of support out there! What will you go looking for? Who do you know that will listen and support you? What can you read or watch?

So here’s my personal top 5 work-life balance resources. You may find them useful too, or they may serve as a taster of what’s out there. Main thing is – whatever you think might help you, go find it!

Prioritising
If you’re overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff you need to do or you’re struggling to decide what to do first, Stephen Covey does a brilliant demo on how to manage your time and prioritise. It makes me chuckle, it’s a simple concept and it’s a fundamental for balance:

Do the big rocks first

i.e. Ensure you make space for the important stuff, then fit the day to day bits & bobs in.

Lead your self
Clear motivation and knowing why you want what you want can do wonders for getting you into action. Are you clear about your reasons? Simon Sinek does a wonderful talk on getting into action, whether you’re leading your self or others. The concept is sooooo beautifully simple – and so powerful.

Start with the why

Incidentally, the TED talks website is a rich source of pretty much everything inspriational, so if it’s new to you, it’s definitely worth a look around.

It’s the way you think
How you think about work is just as much a part of your balance as making practical changes. Fish! is a true story about fishmongers in Seattle finding a way to make their work more fun. It’s part true, part fable and is packed with simple principles to follow.

Fish! By Stephen C Lundin, Harry Paul & John Christensen

Strengths
Do you know what your natural strengths are? Are you making full use of them at work and in the rest of your life? Sometimes the things that we are best are at the hardest to see, because they come so effortlessly. This little book and it’s associated on-line profiling tool will help you check your talents out and understand ways that you can utilise them.

Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath

The work you were born to do
If you’re seeking work that you love, work that means more to you than just a way to earn money, take a look at the Nick Williams work. In particular:

The work we were born to do by Nick Williams

The business you were born to create by Nick Williams

What else would inspire and support you? Who can you talk to, listen to, what else could you learn, watch or read about?

Tip #7 Surround yourself with whatever supports and inspires you

Happy browsing!

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More to… work life balance

Hello and welcome to Part 2 of our series on Work-Life Balance.

Yesterday we explored work… and life and the way that every aspect of life is involved in creating balance. Today we’re taking a look at the nature of balance itself. What might be significant about the fact that work-life is a balance?

When something is perfectly in balance, the dictionary definition is that its weight is completely evenly distributed. So when work and all the other elements of life feel in balance, there’s a sense of the weight or priority you give to each element being even or appropriate. The mix of work, and all the elements of the balance wheel are right for you at that point in time.

The other fundamental of balance is that it is possible for something to affect that balance, making it wobble or unbalance. Unlike a fixed structure, something (or someone) that is in balance is sensitive to shifts in their environment: If something changes internally or externally there’s movement and the balance shifts.

Tip #2 Achieving balance is not a one-off activity. To maintain balance, expect to make adjustments.

So there’s adjustments to be made whenever something changes – usually a small adjustment, sometimes something bigger. Stuff will happen, wobbles are natural, the old balance point was good but might not work any more because you, and the contents of your life, have moved on.

Now to consider what balance is like when there aren’t any obvious changes going on. Yep, balance is just as important when you’re on an even keel too!

Do you remember what it feels like to balance on one leg? Holding that balance involves many different muscles working. It is not a passive balance, you’re actively involved in creating it. You might find it helpful to have some support initially, then the more often you practice, the stronger you get and the balancing gets easier.

The same is true for work-life balance. You create the balance, you maintain it daily, provide nurture and practice so that you build strength in balancing.

Tip #3 Work-life balance is dynamic, requiring you to be alert to what’s going on, develop your balancing strength and be ready to make adjustments

There’s also different ways things can balance. In particular, there’s easy ways to balance, and there’s hard ways. Like attempting to balance a triangle on its pointy tip instead of one of the flat sides, the stability of your balance is also about how you choose to create balance, discovering where the natural balance is. Trying harder to balance on a pointy tip does not make a pointy tip either stable or easy to balance on!

Tip #4 Look out for what feels easy to do and check whether that could help your balance

Balance is a skill. It becomes easier with practice. It becomes easier when you are alert for changes and take responsible action when needed. It becomes easier when you do a greater proportion of “what comes naturally.”

For today, I challenge you to do one little thing that helps your sense of balance. It can be as small as you like… what will you do?

Next: How to use fear well : what to do if you know the step you want to take but it scares the wotsits off you.

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More to… work life balance

No metaphors were harmed in the writing of this post

Some might have got a bit mixed up