Our job takes up a huge portion of our life. Most of the time we spend awake Monday through Friday revolves around your work in some way or another. Obviously, your job is extremely important! The further you advance in your career, the easier it is to reach those luxuries you wanted in your personal life. However, far too often people get so entrenched in their career that they are never able to take advantage of those luxuries they earned (their nice house with a pool or that money in the bank set aside for a vacation they keep putting off). So how do we balance putting in what it takes to have a successful career and also have an enjoyable personal life?

Work at Home

Don’t Bring Your Work Home

You already spend the majority of your day at work, so why take that home? Most people think if they can work on a project at home, it will free them up in some future time; however, that future time ends up getting filled up with work, too. Unfortunately, there’s never a stopping point when it comes to work and we can always find something that needs to be worked on. You need to make clear boundaries in your life. Try setting hard boundaries by having a set end time for work. For example, try ending work at 5 p.m. each day or avoid bringing work home. Whatever you choose needs to be made known to your co-workers and family so they can help hold you to it.

Family

Make Time for Loved Ones

If you are always focusing on work and advancing your career, you are missing time with your loved ones. Whether your spouse and kids, parents, grandparents, or friends there are loved ones out there that you can enrich your life. Make them a priority by spending uninterrupted time with them.

By stopping work at five each night, you now have a few hours to spend with your kids. Or by stopping taking work related calls on the weekends, you can now plan weekend getaways with your friends. Use your overdue vacation days to visit your grandparents.

Exercise

Make Time for You

It is important to make time for yourself. By taking care of yourself both physically and mentally, you will live a longer and much happier life. Most people benefit from finding a hobby they can do on a regular basis. It is important to remove yourself away from your work and explore what makes you happy and brings you joy, even if it is as simple as not answering your phone on the way into work because you are listening to a book on tape in the car.

 

We only have one life, and even though we all have to work in some way, if we are able to find that work- life balance that fits our situation, we can live a much happier and fulfilled life.