20 Things Learned: Strive for Work/Life Integration

Lesson 20: Give up the myth of work/life balance.

We’ve all heard it. We should be striving for work/life balance. Every coach, self-help person, and so-called ‘guru’ tells you if you don’t have it, you will never be happy!

Well…. it doesn’t exist.

When you are working for yourself you will lose weekends and in the early stages you will potentially lose the option of taking regular holidays. Many of us end up working six or seven days a week when we’re starting out – which includes admin and networking. And 9 to 5 days are a thing of the past when you are building your practice.

You need to work hard to build your practice to a point where it’s working for you.

We all know though, if you can find your rhythm and really enjoy what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life!

So, I like to encourage people to strive for work/life integration instead and give up the myth of work/life balance. When you are self-employed work is so much an integral part OF your life that balancing work and then “the rest of” your life seems counter intuitive. If you can INTEGRATE what you do into your life you’ll become so much more comfortable, less frazzled, stressed and tired, and this will help you achieve Lesson 19: enjoying what you do!

You’ll find a whole episode on work/life integration at The Virtual Business Show Podcast at Ep 33.

So that’s 20! Twenty things I’ve learned in 20 years in business – though there would no doubt be heaps of others and you are sure to know a few more.

Hopefully these 20 lessons will give you the motivation you need to get started in your VA practice or other small business, or to keep going!

©Lyn Prowse-Bishopwww.execstress.com