No balance, just choices.

My team interviewed a Strawberry farm owner to answer our questions on the subject. She talked about how difficult it is sometimes during the summertime to separate your work and free time since you live at your workplace and it is always there right in front of you. She said that the best way to do that is to leave to a neutral place, where there are no work reminders around you. When you don’t have a constant reminder about your work and you don’t have the possibility to do your work, it allows you to relax more. She talked about how summertime is full of work, but wintertime gives her the chance to focus only on her family and self-care.

Is there really work and life balance, however? I think no. Because work is just another part of your life and to say you’re balancing between your work and life is nonsense. What you actually are doing is balancing different areas of your life; your family, your work, your hobbies, your time with yourself, etc. And is there an ultimate balance that you can achieve? No way! There are always going to come times when you need to focus more on your work or your family or even on yourself. The true balance is you feeling good about the things you’re doing in your life and the amount of time you use on each of them. It is not about balance; it’s about feeling good about the choices you’ve made. Because the choices you make define what you ultimately choose to make out of your life. Do you choose to focus on work, family, friends, or perhaps yourself? Do you try to give each of these areas the same attention or does some part need more attention than another? Do you choose to take that extra shift at work or spend that extra time with your son? Which one do you give more value to? Do you go out with your friends that night or do you stay at home relaxing and focusing on self-care? It is not about balance, it’s about making choices that make you feel good.

If you really think about it, what would be more stressful than having your life out of balance? Answer: Constantly trying to achieve a balance that doesn’t exist. You’ll use all your time and energy to achieve something that isn’t achievable. So if you’re feeling like your life is totally out of balance, don’t worry, we all have it that way anyway! Just focus on making choices that make you happy!