Work-Life Balance
Mom-Wife balance
Boys-trip Family-trip balance
Veg Non-veg balance
Savings-Expenses balance
Office-School event balance (for parents)
School-Friends College-Friends balance
Girlfriend ex-girlfriend balance
Cook at-home order in balance
Mutual fund gold balance
Damn...
All these have been created by two kinds of people:
1) Who got stuck in life because one of these things mentioned above failed and never worked for them
2) Who got overwhelmed by the 1st kind of people and believed this was the new rule of life. And that it is mandatory for the so-called zen life.
And finally comes:
3) People like me who didn’t believe the people in categories 1 or 2 (a category I just realized while writing this), and took life and work as it came, to figure out that you cannot balance it forever. Each one will have its own priority some days. One will definitely overpower the other some days for sure.
Now for a reason, I know you are pissed reading this!
It’s because of the fact that all this while you believed in the whole concept of work-life balance.
But be with me and let me explain this in the next 7 minutes (I don’t promise anything like those influencers do, but am sure this will show you the reality like that Matrix movie did)—
Imagine this – let’s say on this Monday you have 3 very very important client meetings and real deals hanging on it. But on Saturday morning you are down with high fever and the doc says it’s dengue (I pray this doesn’t happen to you in real).
Now that’s it.
You are in this now.
What will you choose between work and life?
Will you be able to balance it?
Let me remind you dengue fever instantly stamps down your platelets to less than a lakh. You need at least 2 lakhs and above in your blood to survive.
Getting my point?
Now let me tell you – that was me down with dengue.
And do you know what happened to those 3 deals?
We cracked it.
We got it, all 3 deals. How?
Well, my colleagues took care of it without me in it anyway.
My point is – life and work happens, and it will happen for sure. You just can’t alter it. You just need to ensure that you feel & handle both.
You need to breathe both.
You need to have fun with both.
You need to ride both happily.
As, in the so-called work-life balance those wonderful already super-rich influencers are talking about on LinkedIn and YouTube that you are trying to chase always to make both ends happy – starts with Work first always, and then only Life comes.
Do you understand what I am trying to show you here?
You see, without work there is no life, drop this into your head.
I am not saying you work 60 hours 6 days a week, I am just saying you work when you have to work, really hard in that moment. And live life when you have to live that amazing life, really hard at that moment (I meant a vacation, meeting friends, or even just reading my content).
If you are not able to take a break don’t
If you are now able to meet friends at times don’t
It’s fine – be patient – wait, you will get another time.
I have missed birthdays, vacations, anniversaries, parties, weddings, funerals, and myself at times. And I really don’t have this word = sacrifice in my dictionary anymore.
But on the flip side, now if you have missed a sales deal, important meetings, and maybe a new job opening or a business opportunity – do you think it is going to come back?
No, I guess not – it’s gone forever.
But let me give you another POV – what if you got a business deal or crack a sales deal?
You are definitely gonna get some cash to pay for your next holiday.
You will definitely feel happier to party that night.
Don’t you think Work is what can drive that balance in your Life?
That’s it – I know it’s not that simple for your mind to accept this!
Don't chase balance, chase peace.
Right now, if you have read till now, am guessing that you are already at peace, then why think about balancing it?
Take breaks and ask out – it’s important.
Let’s say you are now deeply thinking about building a product feature that your clients have been asking for long. And you are thinking hard about it – whether should I build it, should I not, will it make more money, etc, and blah blah blah.
And you are not able to come to a conclusion yet. What can you do next?
Take a pause 4 mins max – call your mom tell her the situation in short, and explain it in the simplest way possible, in an extremely easy way that she can understand.
And damn!
Damn miracle, just listen to the insights that she has to tell you.
It so happened to me that I was trying to figure out a product pricing proposition. And guess who helped me finalize it?
Mom!
Yeah, am serious about this.
I know you might not be totally convinced here, but for me, that situation was real stuff. Again am not saying you always call mom, but you get my point – right?
Call someone who might understand your problem and give you a POV or a different worldview.
Don’t ask for a solution, please please never ask anyone for a solution.
It’s like asking for Chinese food in a South Indian cuisine restaurant. They will definitely have only the South Indian version of the Chinese food that you are thinking about.
As the solution is confusion, it’s also an illusion and pollution to your brain + heart.
Tell me this without cheating yourself!
Have you ever got a one-time permanent solution from anyone ever?
Think about it.
Well, I haven’t. And you shouldn’t even, expect it.
It’s like a painkiller that lasts for a couple of hours, and once the effect goes off you are back in the same pain, maybe more pain again!
Don’t take one!
Have you noticed this – some people will instantly give you a solution that worked for them and this might work for you, but just for a bit. Maybe just for a little bit. It won’t be long when you call someone else and ask for the same solution again.
This is the same thing that is happening to you when you are trying to ask people around on how to get the elixir or mojo to achieve work-life balance.
Well, maktub (first read about this word in The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho).
Which means it’s written, yeah really (do lookup on Google or ChatGPT).
So don’t chase it work-life balance, just face it, embrace it, and erase it in real time.
Do what you have to, as your pension fund doesn’t grow much if you only invest in balanced funds, you also need equity funds to give you higher returns in the future.
Balance in anything will only give you balanced returns. And not higher returns. This is what I have learned in the last decade and it took me a decade to learn it – hope you don’t!
A friend once reminded me — if you are lazy in the “now”, “tomorrow” will be lazy to you while you try harder to progress in life.
You keep hustling, don’t get into work-life balance & #h#t!
As balance starts with a Bal that sounds like a Ball– it will be stupid to be on a Ball & trying to balance a Ball, don’t be a silly joker on a Ball Juggling Work Life Balance Act!
<So, are you still gonna chase Work-Life balance?/>
