Zen and the lost art of work life balance...

It's been a while since blog posts - just couldn't see the clouds for the sky to get time to write - Lately I’ve been a slave to the office - not always voluntarily. I've been doing the late nights and early mornings and burning the candle at both ends.

It’s got me thinking to lifestyle and choices and how we can achieve the elusive work life balance. Do we even need to ?

Then a few things happened - I was attending a funeral of a family member and reflecting on the ‘end of life’ and achieving goals, in business and in life. Also facing the reality of NOT meeting these goals – then I listened to a great podcast….

It was titled ‘Fixing your Work Life Balance’ and was presented by Valerie Koo and Rob Stone for Xero In - here is the link – a 30 minute listen – well worth it ! https://www.xero.com/au/resources/podcasts/xero-in/2015/work-life-balance/

They interview Billy Tucker – and apart from a soothing accent – Billy offers great insights into how to react when the work life balance rug is ripped out beneath you.

He talks through his journey of ‘getting it wrong’ at pace and scale. More importantly he talks through his journey of how to triage and when to put the brakes on growth.

So many businesses fail early – some meander along without a plan and others just seem to have their ‘ducks in a row’ - regardless successful businesses rely on strong leadership and smart plans. When the wheels start to fall off the bus – one of the first casualties is the owners' work life balance.

I was one of those owners.

I had to work harder – there simply was no time to work smarter. I think the key word Billy used was ‘unforced errors’ and I think, when business is not going the way you expect – having that control taken away from you is even more diminishing and has a profound lasting affect on your ability to let go and ‘be’ away from the coalface when you finally get a break.

So what are my top tips for work life balance ?

1. Be kind to yourself – a wise colleague often says to me “Be kind to yourself” - blame is a hefty burden – guilt is even harder – try not to beat yourself up that you failed and instead look at what is going right, however small.
2. Take time – even if a small grab – a 5 minute walk outside in the sunshine to blow off the pressure and disconnect from the stress can do wonders. Get up, walk away - re connect.
3. Music – often we neglect our sense of sound – music can calm, soothe or pump us up and motivate us – spotify is free (of course there are some annoying ads) but suggested playlists are curated for your mood!
4. Visually sort out your workspace – take 10 minutes to renovate your space – it might be a few new pics of that holiday you are planning – or those great kids you have – I have a ‘trophy shelf” of small knick knacks I have souvenired on my travels that are in front of me that remind me of where I have been and where I want to go.
5. Sleep – repeat after me – sleep is medicine - get enough – wear a sleep mask – buy comfy sheets (I love a good thread count !) – change your sleep habits to induce comfort and promote rest. Your business needs you and so does your health.
6. Hit the bottle = water is life. I am a camel most days but in the past few weeks I have trained my body to accept water as fuel.
7. Talk to those around you – often this isn’t your partner – it may be the most unlikely person – but don’t carry the burden of what is wrong with your business alone – sometimes you can even talk aloud – I have been known to do this in my car- and you will find saying it aloud makes it explainable and sometimes reinforces the NOW.
8. Use tech to try to make the burden less heavy – isolate the problem – for example if the accounts are taking up hours and late nights, talk to your bookkeeper, ask them to carry some of the load temporarily or introduce you to tools that assist in making your more efficient.
9. Give back – treat yourself – after all the hard work – I have 3 ‘candy moments’ - small medium and large – which one I treat myself to depends on how successful I was at achieving my goal. I always get one of them no matter what!
10. Do what works for you – don’t worry of people tell you to sleep at 2am – if you are up and firing and this works for you like I am – do it – just remember to ‘be kind to yourself’ and remit back this time elsewhere.

Hey I’m no expert – I have probably broke every rule in the book in the past 10 weeks but in the end I love my business and I love my work which means work life balance to me is a real achievable goal.

“Love what you do , the rest will follow”