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Articles of interests
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| Work-Life Balance |
admin writes, ""Meaningful work and a balanced life are deep-rooted human needs. They can be repressed or ignored, but sooner or later they're going to assert themselves," wrote Barbara Enhenreich in an article in Working Woman magazine in 1995. This has never been truer than it is today.
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Work-Life Balance- Seeking More of It
By Sharon Teitelbaum
Many of the people I coach, either individually or in groups or workshops, have pursued the "meaningful work" part of the equation for most of their working lives. They seek me out at a time when their need for the other part of the equation, the "balanced life," begins to assert itself.
For some people, this comes after they've had a child or two and have been parenting for two to ten years. Groomed to be high achievers, accustomed to having many balls in the air, they expect themselves to seamlessly handle the additional "balls" that parenting tosses them. What many discover is that parenting is a totally different kind of ball -- and integrating the parenting role into their already full lives is not as straightforward and linear as they expected. At some point during their first decade of parenting, they find that the balance is WAY off.
And for others, the assertion of the need for balance has nothing to do with whether or not they are parents. It comes as a result of gradually getting depleted over the years, as their personal reserves get drained down to zero. It happens from regularly putting other people's and projects' needs above their own, regularly saying "no" to themselves, and slowly, gradually, often imperceptibly, becoming personally undernourished.
It can be terrifying to realize how off-course they are, because there's a lot riding on their maintaining the status quo. Many people are dependent on their staying the course, and there are "golden handcuffs" associated with it. They are president of a division of their company, or the chair of a prestigious department. They are the primary breadwinner. They are mortgaged to within an inch of their lives. They try to repress or overcome their drive for change, but they can push it away for only so long.
My message to those of you whose need for balance is asserting itself more and more loudly is, "Don't be afraid to examine this." The sooner you start wrestling this thing to the ground the better. It will not go away, or not for long. You will feel great relief when you stop pretending everything is OK, and you start examining what your issues and your options are. As career counselor and author Barbara Sher writes, "The smallest step away from speculation and into reality can be amazing relief."
The good news is you can make changes so that your life is more in keeping with your needs. Change is possible. Will there be trade-offs? Yes, absolutely. But the trade-offs you are now living, every day, are not sustainable, and the cost to you is the pain you are now feeling. Take heart -- many many people have changed their lives for the better and you can too. You may not need to make HUGE changes. Many of the people I've coached made small changes that had a large positive impact on their quality of life.
Don't be afraid to LOOK at your situation. No one will make you do anything you don't want to do. But if you don't LOOK and consider your options, nothing will change.
Copyright 2006 Sharon Teitelbaum. All rights reserved.
Master Certified Coach Sharon Teitelbaum is an authority on work life balance and an expert life coach to busy professionals, high achievers, people at midlife, and working parents. Her book, Getting Unstuck Without Coming Unglued: Restoring Work-Life Balance, is a strategic, tactical guide for maintaining a sane and balanced life, distilled from her experience coaching hundreds of people. A sought-after keynote speaker and workshop leader, Sharon has addressed such diverse audiences as Harvard Medical School Faculty, financial advisors at Merrill Lynch, and Mothers' of Twins Clubs. She has been featured in national publications including The New York Times, Working Mother Magazine, and Forbes.com. Sharon works with individual coaching clients throughout the US and internationally by phone, or in person in the Boston area, and always offers an initial consultation at no charge. Married for thirty-plus years, she is the mother of two fabulous grown-up daughters.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sharon_Teitelbaum
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Posted on Sep 02, 2008 02:49am.
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