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Tuesday 8 October 2013

Building a Healthy Balance (Sheet)

Joel Peterson (Chair of JetBlue Airways, Entrepreneurial Management lecturer at Stanford Business School) wrote a LinkedIn post recently called "The Work-Life Strategies that Really Matter".

As you know, "work-life" is a misnomer that I have written on this blog about before, as "I hadn't noticed that I was dead when I wasn't at work". To me, these are not opposites. Living is what we do: work is a subset of that :-D

Nancy Lui, a Client Service Officer, replied to Joel's blog post by saying " 'Work and personal life' seems like asset and liability, we always make efforts to put the two things on 'balance sheet' and keep them on balance & steady".

Great metaphor. I really liked the fact that Nancy put work and personal up on either side, so that work was your asset, and what you do when you are not working forms both your equity and your liabilities (how you fund your asset).

This means that your funding sources include study and personal development, because they fund your asset.

Nancy's post made me realise that a simple "T Ledger" balance sheet could be a great way of illustrating how we can create and fund balance in our lives, and in our client's lives. It could be a wonderful illustrator to walk us through the various components of how we chose to live; and be a simple tool that can clearly show us when our lives are out of balance, giving us ideas of where to make choices.
  
Nancy finished up her comment by saying that we should "'steal' time for personal life" from our work schedule, so that, despite our increased work pressure, we can live more balanced lives.

I am uncomfortable with the idea of stealing time from work (having to 'steal' time feels like an unhealthy work ethic), but the underlying principle is great. Rob from the rich to pay for the poor! Tally ho, Robin Hood!

  • Reference:  Peterson, Joel (5 October 2013). The Work-Life Strategies that Really Matter. Retrieved 7 October 2013 from http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20131005105116-11846967-the-work-life-strategies-that-really-matter


Sam

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