“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”
Work-life balance, something we all strive to have, but somehow we end up burned out from our eagerness to remain active in every arena of our lives. Many of us think that in order to be fully active in our social life, we must give up another important part of our lives. We have trouble requesting days off from work for important family and personal events because we are afraid of what others in the workplace will think of us. We fear taking mental health days from work because we’ll be labeled as “weak.”
When I first began working, I was planning a trip to go visit family in the U.K. I was terribly afraid that I would be labeled as someone who simply didn’t want to work. It wasn’t until a coworker left the job due to the detriments of not taking time off that I realized how important it was to take care of yourself.
It is true that we must work hard, however, our eagerness to work shouldn’t become a disadvantage to our lives. I have come to appreciate taking time off to spend time with family, friends, and ME. I take time off to spend the day at home and catch up on house chores that I would otherwise be doing after a long day at work.
I was led to write this article because I believe a lot of people need to hear this. It is okay to take a day off from work and relax at home. It is okay to take mental health days, because if we’re honest, work can sometimes drain us. It is okay to take a vacation with your family. You shouldn’t have to pick one over the other. You shouldn’t feel bad for wanting a balance between work and life.
I’ll end with a quick story. There was a couple that was so focused on work and nothing else—they would work overtime, get to work early, and even spend some weekends doing work at home. By the time they would get home from work, the nanny had already fed the kids dinner and was getting them ready for bed. In the mornings when the couple was leaving for work, their kids would still be asleep. On the weekends, when it was an opportune time for them to spend time with their children, they would be on their laptops working the day away. The couple would always be “caught up at work” that they missed every game, every recital, and other major events in their children’s lives. Years later, when they had retired, they realized how caught up they were in work that they never made time for their family. Their advice after a feeling of deep regret came over them: “The empty nest comes quickly, do not squander your most precious privilege of participating in the lives of your children.”
How are you intentionally balancing work and life? Are you actively making time for yourself and your family? Time is one thing that can never be taken back and one day when you look back and reflect on your life, you’ll either be full of joy and satisfaction, or full of regret. It’s not too late to start now and take hold of the way your time is spent, the most important thing is that you start. Work is good, and life is good, but a balance between the two makes it all worthwhile.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 (MSG): “There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth.”
Humanly Yours,
Abenah