work-life integration
Work-life balance is often unjustifiably attacked.
The hustle culture crowd wants you to believe that you can’t have success professionally while having the personal life you want. They want you to believe it’s either/or and that you have to make a choice.
This is false.
The idea that balance has to be 50-50 is inaccurate; the greatest flaw in the work-life balance argument is the use of the word “balance.”
When I think of balance, I immediately picture a balancing scale with pebbles on each side to bring it into balance. When the scales balance, both sides have about the same number of pebbles and appear to be equal. When trying to balance work and life, we’ll stick with that term for a little longer, I think it is more helpful to imagine that each side has a weighted average, trying to find an equilibrium.
For example, if, thanks to discipline, technology, and a good team, you can accomplish all you need to do in 30 hours a week instead of the socially accepted 40-50 hours, you now have more time during the week for your personal life. The “weighted average” of the 30 hours is heavy enough to balance out the additional hours you gain in your personal life.
The quality of time spent on the side in an hourly deficit allows it to balance out the side in a surplus.
I don’t know about you, but that makes me want to focus on eliminating inefficient time and concentrate on spending my time, both personally and professionally, in meaningful ways.
While we’re redefining this idea, I’d like to suggest we replace balance with integration.
Work-life integration–with integration meaning that we’re combining separate things into a unified whole. Integration feels more fluid and flexible, allowing work and life to work together rather than compete for your time, attention, and energy. Integration also allows for the time spent in professional and personal to shift as life calls for it–I’ve been tilting more towards personal for the last five or six years and will begin to tilt towards professional in the coming years.
Your Authentic Life plays an important role in work-life integration.
When you use your unique gifts and talents, do work that aligns with your Authentic Life, and are excited about the job you are doing, it becomes much easier to integrate your professional life with your personal life. When you are not doing work you love, it is harder to integrate because you want to keep the energy of it away from your personal life–you don’t want the negative feelings from your professional life spilling into your personal life.
One final important consideration for establishing work-life integration is understanding your definition of success–what are you striving for professionally and personally? Don’t let society tell you what you are supposed to achieve. What does your heart tell you? Where is your Authentic Life taking you? What does success look like for you?
Use this definition of success to help create a sense of integration between work and life.
The truth is, work-life integration is work-life balance, but I prefer the energy of integration over balance.
And the truth is, work-life integration is possible–I’ve been intentional about it for years.
See you tomorrow and keep pursuing,
JC
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