Leave Work at Work: Learn How To Have A Balanced Life

I believe achieving a work-life balance is a myth. As a result, I think we can learn how to have a balanced life. I am a Minimalist who believes you should build work around your life and not build a life around your work.

Someone else may believe work is their life and love work almost more than life itself. In both extremes, work-life balance is never achieved and may not be the goal.

Good and bad. Day and Night. Even babies recognize balance and fairness as good as they instinctively look astounded if mistreated. Give them something smaller, and you take something larger in their presence and see what happens 😉

One day, my mother was in the kitchen slicing cake for my 5-year-old and a few of his friends. As she went to the backyard to serve them, I told her there was a problem.

One slice was smaller than the others. She did not believe that would be a problem as if she had never met her grandson. LOL.

All parents know what happened next. A fight ensued. No one wanted the smaller piece. The children had a deep sense of fairness and innately believed it was silly to insist someone accept the smaller piece.

At some point, almost all adults lose those innocent childhood sensibilities. Maybe we can infuse a sense of fairness into our lives and learn to be balanced.

Here, I will show you how to leave work at work, have a balanced life, and enjoy your newfound freedom.

Leave Work At Work

Many of us begin a career or work life eager to please. We have something to prove. We work hard and long. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that working hard is the key to the most success.

I will always believe in working hard to achieve what I want. The problem with the scenario I just described is we rarely develop an off switch.

We go years like the Energizer Bunny and never turn off from work. We frequently wear it like a badge of honor. Whether it’s work from your 9 to 5 or work from your side hustle, we need to learn to leave work at work regularly.

The way to do this successfully is to schedule “leave work at work time” just as vigorously as we plan our work time. When creating that boundary, you relax more because there are no blurred lines.

When you schedule that time in your calendar, it becomes a law etched in stone. For most of us, this is beneficial because it allows us to spend less stressful, intentional time with good friends and family.

Because of this, the essential people in your life should be involved in the scheduling process. It would be best to create your weekly schedule every Sunday night and consult family and friends when appropriate.

Treat scheduling the time away from work as important as your work schedule. Do not leave blank spaces in your schedule from when you get up until bedtime.

Blank spaces leave room for confusion, blurred lines, and mischief. LOL. For example, if you are scheduled to have a typical dull day at work, schedule 9 to 5 on your calendar. Then, schedule a time for things you would like to do after work, even if it may not be possible.

It is proven what gets scheduled gets done. This dramatically improves the potential of living the day closer to your dreams. Without the schedule, there is a more significant potential of squandering the time after work, and before you know it, it’s bedtime;-(

Get your boss on this. Even if you do not have regular team meetings, get your boss in the act. Schedule a regular time to check in with your boss. Let him or her know there will be times you have essential things to do after quitting.

Make your boss aware that you are organized and like to keep a tight schedule. You want to stay in touch to learn if you can be of assistance shortly, and the more lead time you can get, the better.

In this way, you are more likely to satisfy any request for a schedule change. Also, if you want to say no, there should be time for an alternate solution.

The most important advantage is that you will develop a better relationship with your boss and communicate more than just when you are in trouble or have problems.

Hopefully, your boss will become more comfortable with you, your scheduling, and your boundaries.

Tip To Achieve Living A Balanced Life

1. Be Prepared and Expect the unexpected.

Life cannot be balanced at all times. Events that are out of your control will happen often. However, when you are mentally prepared for them, they are less likely to throw you off and steal your joy.

Most unexpected can be anticipated and planned for, while others cannot. Some will be minor occurrences, and others will border on tragedies.

All will require varying degrees of attention and focus. Remember that bad times and good times are temporary. Learn to enjoy both for that fact and always learn from them.

Work to get things back in balance. Enjoy when you succeed and know the unexpected is poised to raise its ugly head.

3. Seek Better Health and Wellness.

The “I will sleep when I am dead” burn the candle at both ends; the struggle porn lifestyle is no way to live. Allowing a good diet, health, and wellness to go by the wayside at any time is ill-advised.

We all want to remain in excellent health, be there for our families, and enjoy doing the things we love most for as long as possible. Hopefully, staying healthy will include visiting your great-grandkids and riding your Harley Davidson or something like that. LOL.

Be vigilant in whatever diet and exercise method you choose to reach your health and wellness goals. We all know the unexpected happens, and routines may change to accommodate solutions, but get enough rest and work to achieve the life-successful balance you seek.

4. Define your priorities.

Almost all people will say family is a priority and family comes first. Unfortunately, that scratches the surface. You will have to define that priority more clearly for yourself.

You will have to define and try to create the near-perfect mix between spouse (or significant other), Kids (if you have any), parents, siblings (if you have any), and other family members.

Just thinking about it can be exhausting, but I am sure whatever arrangement you are using now would work well with minimal tweaking.

Friends play a significant role in our lives and can sometimes be as important as family members. Allow me to be obvious here.

When I say define priorities, I mean it. I am not talking about just dividing time equally between these groups. I am talking about creating a hierarchal order and treating each group accordingly.

Some relationships contribute more value when seeking to live a more balanced life.

5. Build Relationships.

I want to think people and friendships are more trouble than they are worth ( I can be a bit of a lone Wolf), but Harvard Research says differently. Relationships are significant when seeking a longer, healthier life.

Who knew? LOL.

“It’s silly to try to escape other people’s faults. They are inescapable. Just try to escape your own.” – Marcus Aurelius

People tend to feel more fulfilled when they have a great network of friends, participate in club activities, or get together regularly for fun.

If you do not enjoy these relationships, you should work harder to cultivate them as a foundation for a balanced life. This relationship will become the #1 motivation to help you learn to leave work at work.

Avoid sacrificing these relationships for work because you work too much if you are serious about learning how to live a balanced life.

It would help if you had this outlet.

6. Create a stable financial base.

Living a balanced life is almost impossible if you have money problems. What do your finances look like? Are you working paycheck to paycheck?

Are you earning enough to meet your needs and save for retirement? Is your retirement fund lacking or nonexistent?

“The intention of voluntary simplicity is not to dogmatically live with less. It’s a more demanding intention of living with balance. This is a middle way that moves between the extremes of poverty and indulgence.” – Duane Elgin 1940s

The key to financial stability is to feel in control of your financial future. The idea of economic stability will look different from person to person. For example, I am a Minimalist and require much less money to create a balanced life than people who follow other lifestyles.

To learn to have a balanced life, you must live within your means and earn enough money to allow options. Something is wrong if you work too much and still do not have enough money to meet your needs.

A change is needed if your goal is to have a balanced life. Check out how I resolved a similar issue 😉

7. Create a Lifestyle Business Environment.

Whether you are an entrepreneur or climbing the corporate ladder, ask yourself if you regularly contribute to living a balanced life.

Are you doing something you enjoy, or do you feel like just another cog in a giant machine or a rat in the rat race? Are you excited to begin your day, and do you feel like you are making progress?

Are you climbing the ladder against the correct entrepreneurial or corporate wall? Would you like to see what you see if you reach the top?

Can you create an income around how you would like to live instead of living around how you create income? If you love how you make income, learning how to have a balanced life will become easier.

8. Support your community.

Supporting your community can consist of something as small as keeping your lawn immaculate or something more involved as volunteering at your local hospital.

Giving back works wonders for uplifting your heart and soul. I believe in balance and think everyone is rewarded proportionally by giving back.

I have not met anyone with a story about being rewarded shortly after giving back.

More importantly, it simply feels good. Giving back by writing a check does not feel as good as doing the work.

9. Treat Yourself.

That’s correct. Treating yourself regularly and not feeling guilty about it is crucial to living a balanced life. I know it’s hard for some people to treat themselves, but they need to get over it and give it a try—guilt-free.

Remember, you are the asset and the key. Your world depends on your ability to function properly; many others rely on you. Many essential things cease without your ability to produce.

Airlines instruct you to wear your oxygen mask before assisting others in an emergency—even before helping your children. Yeah! The asset ( Yeah, you. LOL) can not do anything for others unless it is in tip-top form.

Treating yourself may consist of occasionally buying something nice or hiding in your bedroom closet for an hour for peace. Whatever works for you.

Regularly treating yourself can rejuvenate, help reduce stress, and boost your overall mood. Wow! Just saying that is somewhat relaxing for me 😉

10. Feed your spiritual side.

This can be a touchy subject, but I trust you to know what fills your needs at any time. I have never stopped evolving spiritually, and I assume many people are also continually changing.

Regularly connecting with your spiritual side is crucial to a balanced life. Spirituality often dictates our values—our ethos- the rules I live by!

Connecting with your spiritual side daily will help keep you grounded. It may help someone realize that working 80 hours a week and neglecting family is not a great way to live. Or going on a shopping spree for the third weekend in a row may be a cover for other problems.

Spirituality can be a great tool to help learn how to have a balance.

Conclusion

Work, career, or livelihood is usually the #1 obstacle to a balanced life. Just learning how to leave work at work yields enormous positive results in terms of health and happiness.

There is no need to stop there. I have ten other steps that I believe are essential to learning to live a balanced life. Do you agree or disagree?

Is there something you would like to add or delete? In the comments below, please tell us what you think is essential to learning to have a balanced life.