Work, Life, Balance

The words WORK and LIFE combined with BALANCE are critical to living a fulfilling life of peace and happiness.  If work and life fall out of balance there is a pretty good chance that you will burn out faster than you would like to.  You won't be productive at work and you won't do very well at home either.

I'm fortunate in the fact that I have an employer who understands the work/life balance.  I feel like I give 110% when I'm there and I'm a very loyal employee. But when I'm not there I need to focus on my family and give them 110% as well too which can often be a challenge.

I have this habit (and I'm not sure if it's a bad habit or a good habit) where I get very close to a job and it becomes part of the very fabric that I'm made of and becomes and operates very much like a family unit. I need to separate that family from my home family.  There was a time when radio was my "family" now the dealership is my "family." 

I do miss my radio "family", but many of them have all moved on to new endeavors outside of the industry.  I won't use the term "bigger and better" because we lived large and it was a good time. There are 20 years of memories that I'm still legally not allowed to mention, even on a private blog.

Going back to my employer... The owner & general manager work with me in terms of my schedule so that I am able to maintain a sane safe balanced lifestyle because of my condition with bipolar disorder. For anyone who doesn't know what it's like, try to remember your mother going through 'the change' where one minute she is laughing, the next she is crying and there is no reason why.

I'll spend the better part of a Sunday trying to please everyone and trying to make family time with each individual child.  If I veer off my plans for that day, I spend the rest of the night beating myself up for what I didn't get to do, and for the fact that it will be another 7 days before I have this chance again.  (I also often worry that something bad may happen due to an accident or something where I won't be able to make up for that lost time.

So why am I writing this? Well for one I'm making the long drive from work to home so why not be productive and dictate a blog. Number two, I left a little early today with my manager's permission so that I can attend my children's scout awards ceremony.

When I leave "on time" or even early, I often feel bad because I feel like sometimes I'm not giving my 110% because I'm not staying after hours. In the same token I should really be feeling guilty on nights where I close and stay late because I'm not making it home as fast as I should and giving them 100%.

That's where the work/life balance comes into play.  I have a career, I don't have a "job"... and I hope to God that I never have a "job."  I've been very lucky in my life to have 2 careers, one of which has followed me into this career and allows me to still practice radio for 20 years now!

I just don't want to be one of the people who sit in the parking lot waiting for 10:00 to punch in.  And I don't want to be one of those people who punch out at exactly 7PM as they go flying out the door. THOSE are the people with a "job" and that's so NOT me.  

So here is my question to YOU.... how do you have a successful career and maintain a healthy fulfilling home life?  Any thoughts or feedback would be greatly appreciated.  I would love to see how you do it.