Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Work/Life Balance

It’s the biggest challenge we face as working professionals: balancing work and our personal life. There isn’t an easy solution or a model to follow or a code hidden in the stars to uncover. No matter what profession you are in, this will present itself at one point in time (most likely, more often than not).

Back in December, I attended a conference for career counselors and employers and attended a great session about self-renewal and creating a work life balance. For me, it has been a daily struggle trying to balance being a full time graduate student, working 40 hours a week between 3 jobs (all at separate locations), volunteering as an advisor for 2 of my sorority’s chapters (both in two different states), and attempting to have a personal life. Some days I barely found the time to fulfill my basic needs – eating, sleeping, etc. But after attending the self-renewal session, I realized that if I couldn’t take care of myself, how could I accomplish everything else I was doing and do it to the best of my ability.

There are 4 areas where self-renewal needs to take place: Physical, Spiritual, Intellectual, and Social/Emotional. Fulfilling these areas requires you to schedule time to do these activities and be mentally present while doing them. Some areas might be more important to others, but if you are able to do things for yourself, you can excel professionally and help others succeed.
So if you find yourself going into the office every Sunday or doing school work till 4am every night, ask yourself – What will I do for myself today?

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