insightsofsri

[insightsofsri]

Work life balance is a big myth!!

There is no work-life balance..There's only life.

We have been given life and life has no meaning by itself.

Hence, life is a void.

We chose to fill the void with work (among other things, but mostly work)

So we took the void of life and filled it with work.

And now, we want to balance work and life.

That doesn't make sense, right?

Because we filled our life with work and work now exists inside life.

The only way to separate work from our life would be to die.

So it's really not possible to separate work and life.

Hence, all that happens when you try to get a "work-life balance" is stress.

You get stressed and burn out.

But who told you to fill your life with work in the first place?

Your parents, your boss, your schools, society, and now social media.

Someone put you in school, someone asked you to get a degree, which then got you a job.

You may even have your own business, and now social media influencers and mastermind communities might be asking you to make more money and work more.

This is how you filled your life with work in the first place.

And the more you keep doing so, the harder it'll be to have life outside your work.

Because there is no upper limit to work.

If you decide to fill your entire life with work, you can easily do so.

There's always someone who will make more money than you.

Someone who has more degrees than you.

Someone who has more followers than you, and so on.

Remember:

There will always be more work to do.

You will get 'better' jobs that need more work.

You will have more clients and projects.

You will always have a new idea to work on.

You see: work can take up your whole life.

So, what should you do about it?

Option 1: NOTHING.

Accept that you're going to be the hustler.

You will fill your life with work.

And you will likely be very successful as per society.

And this is absolutely fine.

It's just your choice.

Then, stop thinking or caring about work-life balance.

Option 2: Design your own life

The second option is what I prefer.

I like to design my own life.

I see life as a void.

And instead of filling it with just work, I fill it the way I want.

Using this method, I never have to worry about work-life balance.

Because for me, it's only life.

Here's what I fill my life with:

30% for health and wellness

30% for business growth and learning

30% for family and relationships

10% for randomness

The idea is to fill the void evenly.

So the balance is achieved by default.

I further break it down into each day:

First 30% of my day: Health & Wellness

I use this time to exercise and practice yoga, breathing, and meditation.

Next 30% of my day: Business Growth & Learning

I use this time on business and investing strategy, content creation or learning new skills.

Final 30% of my day: Family & Relationships

I spend this time with my wife and daughter, or other family members and friends.

The 10% randomness is unscheduled, and I let it happen randomly.

I can't define it for you because I don't define it for myself.

Once you define it, it's not random anymore.

Finally, all these ways of filling the void of life = LIFE.

When the void is filled this way, you don't need to "find balance."

You need to design your life so that balance is achieved by default.

It's part of your life's design.

Now, you have a framework to design your life.

I use this 30/30/30/10 framework.

For you, it may be different.

Maybe you don't have a family yet or you live alone and can go 30/60/10.

Perhaps you're in a perfect state of health and need 20% of your day on your health.

The idea is to make the framework that works best for you.

For me, I need 5 hours for my health, 5 hours for work, 5 hours for family, and 2 hours of unknown randomness daily.

That's my framework.

Even if I can follow it 80% of the time, I live my ideal life.

If I have to travel for a week for work, I take my family

In this way, I live my life by design.

And not by default.

And that's the message I want to leave you with.

Design your life. Doubt the default.