Forced into Balance (life story everyone can benefit from)

Posted in Work/Life Balance | August 28, 2010 | 7 Comments

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This is a guest post by Eric of Eden Journal.

For eight years I worked for a company where the standard workweek was 46 hours. I realize work weeks vary from country to country, so for the record, 40 hours is considered normal in the United States. That meant I was working and extra six hours above the norm, and adding up the weeks meant I was working an extra 312 hours every year. That’s the equivalent of an extra seven weeks each year.

Out of Balance

The company touted itself as an “extra effort” firm. This extra effort, in the form of six hours per week, added up to a lot of extra manpower that placed them ahead of much of their competition, and the additional hours converted into additional revenue. That additional revenue trickled down to employees and thus gave everyone an incentive to continue working all those extra hours.

The entire time I worked there I struggled to put in those extra six hours per week. I knew I was out of balance. I knew my work life was taking too much time from my home and family life. Then to make things even more difficult, the extra six hours was really just the minimum. What they really wanted was an extra eight to ten hours or more per week. I could see that’s what they wanted because the people that worked those extra hours advanced faster than those that didn’t. I made a conscious choice to sacrifice some advancement in order to spend more time with my family and in personal pursuits and activities. In making the choice to keep my life somewhat in balance, I put in the minimum of 46 hours per week.

It still didn’t feel balanced, but 46 hours per week was better than 50 hours per week. It was difficult to see how unbalanced I had become. I mean I felt like I was working too much, but when I was in the situation, working what was required, and working the same as everyone else in the company, it was hard to see how much personal and family time I was really giving up. It’s really hard to see clearly from within.

Forced Into Balance

Then, all of a sudden, early one Friday morning, I was laid off from this job. A layoff is never expected. You always think it’s going to be someone other than you. But it wasn’t someone else, it was me. It turned out, the layoff was just what I needed to regain some balance. I didn’t do it on my own, so the universe forced the balance on me.

The stress melted away instantly. It was an amazing feeling. It’s as if my body knew I was out of balance and was happy to be shifting in the other direction. I felt lighter and happier. Suddenly the balance had shifted, and I experienced 3 glorious months regaining the personal time I had lost to work. It’s like the karmic forces of life were giving me back my lost time.

I took advantage of this time, knowing that I would eventually go back to work. I spent all the time I could doing things with my family. We went to the beach, to parks, to the zoo, to Disney. Almost every day we participated in some activity together. I loved being home with my wife and daughter. My daughter, who was three at the time, loved having me home. I don’t think she understood why I was home every day, but she loved it, and we played and played.

New Job Brings More Unbalance

During that time, I did do my share of job searching, usually an hour or two every morning. After about three months I returned to work in a job that didn’t require the extra time. This job was better, but I still felt out of balance due to the two hour daily commute (one hour each way) and the on-call nature of the job.

Clarity Brings another New Job and a Better Balance

After a few months I got clear on what I wanted out of a job. I spent some time thinking and got very clear about what I wanted in a job. Within a few weeks of my newly realized clarity I found a position with a company that was closer to home, doesn’t require any on-call support, and sticks to a 40 hour work week.

Now I feel more balanced. I’d still like to be able to spend more time with my family, but as far as 9 to 5 jobs go, this is about as balanced as I can get.

Here are some lessons I discovered about being balanced.

• It’s sometime hard to recognize balance from the inside. I didn’t realize the extent of my unbalanced life until I was laid off and could see it from outside of the context of that job.
• The natural state of life is balance. Life has a way of returning us to balance when we get too far askew.
• If you want balance, sometimes you have to get really clear on what you want. Hoping for balance works sometimes, but getting clear on exactly how you want to be balanced will get you there much faster.

With the economy still struggling, now would seem like a bad time to search for balance. You may be worried about your job and the future of your employment. If you are working, and feeling overworked and unbalanced, I encourage you to find ways to balance your life. Even with all the effort you put in at work, you could find that the universe decides to balance your life for you, and puts an end to that job that was taking so much time.

If you aren’t working, then now is a great time to find balance. Take back that time that was stolen from your personal pursuits and spend the time enjoying your time away from work. While you’re doing that, get clear on where you want to go in the future. Get clear on the type of job you want and the amount of time you want to spend working. Establishing this clarity will set the law of attraction in motion and will give you focus to find the job that you really want.

Balance is key. I encourage you to spend some time thinking about how you can balance your life. It will be a good exercise and could lead to great things.

Eric is an amateur philosopher and enjoys writing about personal development and enlightenment. He is on a constant quest for knowledge, enjoys discussing life lessons, and loves to search for bits of enlightenment in everyday life. You can find him at Eden Journal, where he posts a wide spectrum of articles from personal development to spiritual and philosophical awakenings.

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