The key to balancing work with the rest of your life is simple: it’s happiness. Simple, sure, but I never said it was going to be easy. With the stress and general chaos life can often be wrought with, it’s too easy to lose sight of that coveted equilibrium.
It should come as no surprise that maintaining higher levels of serotonin (that fun-loving chemical in your brain commonly associated with those warm and fuzzy feelings) is more difficult for working women. Gender inequalities are, somehow, still very prevalent in the workplace, with women only making 77 percent of their male counterparts. It’s 2016. The fact that a woman with equal qualifications as a man is getting paid a full 33 precent less than him is despicable. It's infuriating. Further, women must choose to upheave their professional lives if they want to have a family. Sure, there are a rising number of men staying at home to help raise children while women continue to work, but women still must endure the nine months of pregnancy and the aftermaths that potentially follow.
Roni Wright, vice president of The Book Company and a member on several boards in the promotional products industry for the past 30 years, claims to have found this precious balance. First, you need to accept that not everything is under your control. I’ll let you take a minute to accept that the world does not, in fact, revolve around your needs. Ready? Okay then.
Take solace in knowing that you’re still able to control your reaction to outside forces. Wright claims that “the things we can control are the things with inner control” and I’m inclined to agree. So that customer decided that she didn’t want that very specific type of mug you spent hours locating. You can lose your cool and more than likely, that customer, or you can rededicate yourself to her cause and find a different product she can use. Inner control. It's not the easiest thing to maintain, but there are ways to enhance your control over it.
Organize your life. It’s no secret that an organized life leads to an organized mind. Something as simple as setting short- and long-term plans for the day can give your life a stronger foundation. Know yourself. And don’t lie. Everyone has skills and weaknesses.
Remember the saying that a zebra can’t change its stripes (and why would it want to? Stripes are totally in right now). Well you also can’t force an early bird to be a night owl or vice versa. Find the time when you work best and work to that time.
Take care of your body. With proper nutrition, exercise and a decent night’s sleep, you’ll be amazed at how much better your life functions.
According to Wright, learning how to be properly mindful is the ultimate way to find balance over, well, everything. Mindfulness is “the ability to pay attention on purpose in the present moment. It is shifting from auto-pilot to seeing clearly whatever is happening right then and there.” Wright notes that yoga has set her on this road to balance. But if you’re not into the yoga scene, just make sure to carve out a little time for yourself every day.
Everyone gets the same amount of hours in a day; what will you do with them?
Tayla Carpenter is the project manager for iPROMOTEu. She developed and currently manages A Woman's View, a program specifically designed to support women distributors in the promotional products industry. Contact Tayla at tcarpenter@ipromoteu.com.