Meaningful daily Achievement and Enjoyment in each of my four life quadrants: Work, Family, Friends and Self.Īsk yourself now, when was the last time you Achieved AND Enjoyed something at work? What about Achieved AND Enjoyed with your family your friends? And how recently have you Achieved AND Enjoyed something just for you? As a result, a good working definition of Work-Life Balance is:
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Life will deliver the value and balance we desire …when we are achieving and enjoying something every single day…in all the important areas that make up our lives. And if I do both of those things every day, for the rest of my life… I'm going to have a pretty good life."Īnd I think that's true for all of us. And if I do both of those things today, I'm going to have a pretty good day. I'd say, "You know, I just want to achieve something today and I want to enjoy something today. "Heh mister… what's your purpose in life?" Well even in that half-awake condition, I'd have an answer for him. Some philosophical guy bumps into me, and says…. Focusing on Achievement and Enjoyment every day in life helps you avoid the "As Soon As Trap", the life dulling habit of planning on getting around to the joys of life and accomplishment "as soon as…."
#Work life balance definitions full#
You cannot get the full value from life without BOTH Achievement and Enjoyment. Trying to live a one sided life is why so many "Successful" people are not happy, or not nearly as happy as they should be. You can't have one without the other, no more than you can have a coin with only one side. It means Pride, Satisfaction, Happiness, Celebration, Love, A Sense of Well Being …all the Joys of Living.Īchievement and Enjoyment are the front and back of the coin of value in life. As part of a relevant Work-Life Balance definition, enjoyment does not just mean "Ha-Ha" happiness. But let's explore the concept of Enjoyment a little more. Most of us already have a good grasp on the meaning of Achievement. Achievement and Enjoyment answer the big question "Why?" Why do you want a better income…a new house…the kids through college…to do a good job today…to come to work at all? They are dailyĪchievement and Enjoyment, ideas almost deceptive in their simplicity.Įngraining a fuller meaning of these two concepts takes us most of the way to defining a positive Work-Life Balance. However, at the core of an effective work-life balance definition are two key everyday concepts that are relevant to each of us. The best work-life balance is different for each of us because we all have different priorities and different lives. There is no perfect, one-size fits all, balance you should be striving for. The right balance for you when you are single will be different when you marry, or if you have children when you start a new career versus when you are nearing retirement. The right balance for you today will probably be different for you tomorrow.
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Your best individual work-life balance will vary over time, often on a daily basis. Life is and should be more fluid than that.
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Trying to schedule an equal number of hours for each of your various work and personal activities is usually unrewarding and unrealistic. Consequently, a three-factor framework is recommended, through which future studies may address the problems of definition and equity in work–life balance literature, including: a broader definition of work–life balance to include marginalized parents the defining of parenting and employment as potentially life-enriching and a commendation of the transdisciplinary approach within management studies as poised to move debate forward.Work-Life Balance does not mean an equal balance. They further identify as limiting the definition of work–life balance to be always ‘problematic’, rather than enriching, among employed parents. The authors show how this narrow definition has led to inequities within research. The review offers explanations for the historic but narrow definition within organizational psychology and sociologies of work and family practices of work–life balance as affecting mainly heterosexual dual-career parent couples. A tendency towards mono-disciplinarity is observed within organizational psychology and sociologies of work and family practices.
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Gender, class and difference are singled out as troubling themes, especially in relation to fathers and impoverished parents. It analyses research trajectories first within the established disciplines of organizational psychology and the sociologies of work and family practices, and then within the newer field of management studies. This review investigates the problems of definition and inequity with which the literature on parenthood and work–life balance is beset.