Source: Wikimedia Author: Zitsman, Carl, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
As I sat at my computer at 11:09pm, wondering how I was going to get all of my outstanding tasks completed (work, school, personal), I realized what I was going to write about this week: Work-Life Balance.
How do you realize your core values without a year of life changing events and earth-shattering decisions? (see my earlier post) I read a number of journal articles, but a simple web search revealed the best information. In particular, an excellent blog post entitled “Leadership Practices for Work Life Sanity” (Inam, 2012) by executive coach, Henna Inam.
In the article, she outlines ideas espoused by the brothers Heath, as well as several other great tips for success. The first two, in particular, were the focus of my revelation this past summer, and #’s 3 and 4 were not far behind. So, I recommend you read the post, but here is the distillation:
- Take a step back and define success on your own terms. This was the core tenet of my revelation this summer. The typical definition of success in this case was to take the job with more management responsibilities, but MY definition of success was something else.
- Set your priorities and follow them. I decided to build upon my existing career while focusing my priorities on my family. I now have a plan for how to apply my MBA, pursue my priority AND a more fulfilling career. Now I just have to keep my eye on the prize.
- Get clear on the biggest levers of success. Is it really necessary to work 70-80 hours a week to get that promotion or avoid the hatchet? Do I really need to sacrifice my health, family, and education for this job?
- Reclaim your self-worth. In the face of adversity, it is easy to doubt yourself. I was beginning to question my self-worth. Would others really appreciate my experience and opinion? (It turns out they do!)
- Give up on perfection and start to embrace “good enough”. What is it Dr. LAS always says? B’s get degrees?
- Ask for what you need and learn to say No. Really two separate and self explanatory items, but she wanted to end with lucky #7.
- Practice being present where you are. There is a great link here to a tip on how to create and maintain mindfulness which touches upon many of the items we read about in the last unit.
Inam, H. (Retrieved Nov. 18, 2013) Leadership practices for work life sanity. Transformational Leadership: Coaching and Leadership Development for Women. Retrieved from: http://www.transformleaders.tv/leadership-practices-for-work-life-sanity/
Three guys and a girl - NCSU Jenkins MBA 
I have my own seven values statements up on my refrigerator — I also put them at the top of my daily to do list. That means that every day I see them and repeat them to myself at least four times a day. I find this to be a very helpful, calming, practice.
And the “B’s get degrees” is an offshoot of what I used to say for most projects I worked on — sometimes you must be perfect, but most the time ask “is it good enough for fruit salad?” That is, no one looks at a fruit salad and gets out their calipers to make sure the banana slices are perfect….we enjoy the whole result.