This week I am on “vacation” in the glory that is the gulf shores of Alabama, also known as the Redneck Rivera. I put the term “vacation” in quotes for two reasons:
I’ll be spending the week with my in-laws – something I’ve done for 14 out of the past 16 years. While they are truly wonderful people, that’s a lot of familiarity over the years and, well, I bet you can do the math.
Even when I take time off, I’m never truly out of contact nor can I shut off my brain on how to continually improve PromoCorner for our associates and clients alike.
There are many people who say they constantly struggle to maintain a balance between their work and personal aspects of their lives. Candidly, I don't understand this concept. When I think of the word “balance” as it pertains to life, I take it to mean that I need to offset bad things with an equal amount of good things. For example, if I decide to eat poorly, I would need to exercise to achieve balance.
When the word balance is applied to work and life, which one is bad? I assume that most people view work as the negative part of the equation. If that’s the case, you’re doing it wrong – really wrong.
Successful people are able to blend everything they do into a complete life. By segmenting everything – work, family, recreation, chores, etc., you only set yourself up to have all of these activities competing against each other for your time. And, when you feel your time is pulled in many directions, you end up being “busy” and resenting it.
Frankly, the work/life balance is an illusion – it simply doesn’t exist. Rather than striving for something that cannot be achieved, focus on finding the passion in all that you do, including work. If you don’t have passion for your work, then you will constantly resent the time it takes away from activities in which you do have passion. So, this week, I am going to unplug a bit and enjoy some time away at the beach. At the same time, I will keep a notebook with me so I can jot down ideas for how to add value to PromoCorner and our clients as they come to me. The two can truly coexist without either my family or my work feeling jilted.
Life shouldn’t be an act of simply balancing positive and negative activities. Discover passion in everything you do and you’ll never think about balancing work and life again.
Bill is president of PromoCorner, the leading digital marketing service provider to the promotional products industry, and has over 17 years working in executive leadership positions at leading promotional products distributorships. A featured speaker at numerous industry events, a serial creator of content marketing, immediate past president of the Promotional Products Association of the Mid-South (PPAMS), vice president of the Regional Association Council (RAC) board, and PromoKitchen chef, Bill has extensive experience coaching sales teams, creating successful marketing campaigns, and developing branding that resonates with a target audience. He can be reached at bill@PromoCorner.com.