25 Jul Busting The Work Life Balance Myth
Is work life balance is achievable, or just a myth? Birgitta and Fiona discuss how you can achieve balance if you stop focusing on how you distribute you time and instead learn to be truly present in the moment. Please follow The Smartest Path YouTube channel to keep up to date on the latest Smartest Conversations.
Transcript
Fiona : Work life balance Birgitta?
Birgitta : Yes.
Fi: Good lord what a myth that it is.
B: I think it depends a little bit on from what perspective you look at it. If you look at it from a time perspective I’m absolutely and fully agreeing with you.Because if we try to balance our time like a lot of people are saying that we should, it’s not going to work.
Fi: Absolutely. We spend so much time at work there’s no way that we could spend the same amount of time to get a balance at home. So you know, I’m always talking about presence.I’m talking about us creating presence and talking about us being at present. Being present and of course at Christmas I’m hoping that finally this year she’s going to give me a present.
B: Oh shut up!
Fi: We’ll come back to that. (laughs)
Fi: But it is, it’s about being fully present in the moment.
B: Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think, I mean, because one of the things is that I think we emphasize too much that we have all these different sources and these different things that we have to keep up and we have to keep going and blah blah blah, like that. And it’s not, if we look at it from a different way and if we say we do not have to be a parent 24 hours a day because we don’t. We do not have to be a husband and a wife and we do not have to be an employer or an employee for 24 hours.
Fi: But when you are in that role, if I might call it a role. When you are in that role you’re fully focused.
B: Absolutely.
Fi: If you’re being a parent, you’re being a parent and if you’re being a football player you’re being a football player, or whatever it is that you do.
B: Absolutely. Yeah and what it’s all about is about connecting to whatever you’re doing. So if you are, say for instance, with the customers you connect with your customers.To make sure that, that what you’re doing is adding value to them. The same way when you’re with a partner. You’re connecting, you’re making that connection. You’re making getting that understanding of what drives them and what drives yourself and you connect with each other and that’s the
important thing I think about creating balance. It’s the connection you make and the focus you have on that.
Fi: We’ve got three connections that we talk about constantly at the Smartest Path.We talk about that connection to your head, that connection to your body and that connection to
other people as well.
B: Absolutely, absolutely.
Fi: Let’s give a tip.
B: Okay.
Fi : Let’s give a tip or a challenge. What do you reckon, what can we do?
B: Well it might be a tip and a challenge as a matter of fact, I think one of the things that we would like to challenge you with is to just take a step back and reflect. And ask yourself “Have I been fully present today?”
Fi: I’m going to put a spin on it, I’m going to put a spin in. I’m going to say an alternative is to ask yourself “Have I helped the people that I’ve been with today to be fully present.”