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How Do You Define Balance?

28 January 2014

Allison read a list of different ways to define balance generated by a group of course participants and appreciated people’s ability to articulate what satisfies them.

Tags: allison read, balance

I’m teaching our Choosing Balance and Leadership course this week to a group of mid-level leaders who have been identified as having “high potential.” That’s a good thing, right? Well, certainly, I’d be glad to learn someone thought I had high potential, but we also know that such promise can often lead to burnout in the workplace. Therefore, the program designers decided to dedicate some class time to helping these leaders explore the topic of balance.

The word balance conjures up a lot of different reactions. Here’s an excerpt from my 5 March 2013 Balance Defined post:

You’ll never hear me talking about work-life balance because that’s counter to the balance concept I support. (I have one life and work is an important part of it but certainly not outside of my life or counter to it.) I still use the word balance because it has more meaning to more people, but I’ve often toyed with switching to equilibrium, satisfaction, or integration (the state Oxford suggests entrepreneurs try to achieve). I especially like the point Matthew Kelly makes in his book, Off Balance: Getting Beyond the Work-Life Balance Myth to Personal and Professional Satisfaction. “Over the past three years I have asked more than ten thousand respondents, ‘If you had to choose between balance and satisfaction, which would you choose?’ Not a single responded chose balance over satisfaction.”

I asked my course participants this morning this same question, “Would you choose balance or satisfaction?” All agreed that satisfaction resonated more deeply with them and many shared that what they are really looking for is a feeling of happiness. I then asked them, “What does balance mean to you? How do you define it?” Here are definitions they shared. (Halfway through the course, several have already said that they are tweaking their definitions and “borrowing” fellow classmates’ definitions.)

• Meeting the needs of work, home, and self
• Having and creating time and space both for work and things I enjoy outside of work, feeling at ease and calm
• Reduction of guilt about the time I spend and where I spend it
• At work I have an ability to find a fourth gear, set boundaries and an ability to say “no” and I have energy after work
• Meeting short term and long term needs and responsibilities so I can be happier
• Being happy, achieving what I want at work and personally
• It translates to happiness. I develop and nurture deep and meaningful relationships with friends and family. I have to impact something positively and sometimes it leads to change and progress.
• Feeling good about making difference at work. I have energy and a good, fun family life as well as security, money and flexibility for road trips.
• “Adequate” time to do my job well, play time for me and friends, chillaxing time for family
• Appropriate time and energy for work, family, and self
• Job satisfaction, workout in the morning, be present at home, good team of coworkers, the value of what I do makes my family and friends proud and gets me excited
• Keeping energized and avoiding feeling drained, being happy about my life in and out of work, having those I care about happy with the amount of time I spend on them
• Being present where I am feeling peaceful and engaged fully with people wherever I am. My mind isn’t racing.
• Being fulfilled in family, marriage, work, friends and making contributions in many ways, especially in my community
• How I spend my time, thinking about and performing certain tasks
• Fulfillment at work and time for family, friends, and self
• Moving forward toward diverse life goals and ideals, experiencing life

If achieving balance is important to you, then you need to be able to define what balance feels like so that you take steps toward that goal. I’ll spend today and tomorrow working with these leaders to identify specific actions they can take to help themselves achieve and maintain their definitions of balance.  How do you define balance?

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