#1 Your work and life need to be balanced every day.

No.

You can try as hard as you want, but a perfectly balanced life—every single day—is a fantasy at best.

What work-life balance truly means is getting to a stage where you’re satisfied in both your work and your life, and getting there is a journey full of imbalance and turbulence.

#2 Without work-life balance, you’ll burn out.

Burnout happens when you hit a plateau. When all your efforts are going to waste and you can’t progress, that’s when you burn out.

Passionate, purposeful people actually embrace imbalance, give their all to their work, and feel happier than the general populace.

The problem isn’t your lack of balance, but your lack of purpose.

#3 Everyone needs a work-life balance.

Those with big dreams don’t. David Heacock, founder of Filterbuy, explains it best on The Knowledge Project: 

“I think if you want to do anything big, you have to be obsessed, because if you’re not, you’re competing with someone who is. It is completely okay not to be obsessed and not to be super driven…But if you want to be the best at something or if you want to have a disproportionate outcome in life, then you have to recognize that you’re coming with people who are obsessed…I think it just depends on what you want out of life.”

Ask yourself, “What do I want?”

#4 Work-life balance should always be a priority.

The truth is, we don’t live in a structured, rational world. We live in a world that changes with seasons and our life does the same.

It pans out in seasons where one thing takes over the majority of our focus, and in the next, something else takes over.

And when you’re in one of those seasons, things will be out of balance. Don’t be afraid of it. Jump all in instead and live your life…instead of just managing it on a pretty calendar.

#5 All things in your life should be balanced.

It depends on your priorities.

If the stakes in your work are low, you don’t see any growth potential, but you have to stay for the money, by all means, create the balance, and only do what’s demanded of you. Spend your after-work hours building your life the way you want.

But when the stakes for your growth and learning are high (both in work and life), don’t aim for balance. Go above and beyond to give your 110%. That’s the key to leveraging life-changing opportunities.

#6 Complex Routines = Work-life Balance.

Having a 90-minute, 6-step morning routine that includes three relaxation exercises is not the meaning of balance; doing what matters to you, and doing it well is.

Humans have a natural tendency to drift toward complex ideas that shove away simple truths that make us uncomfortable. This is a perfect example.

Work-life balance came up as a concept to help people who are crashing out and yearning for a life that makes THEM happy. We’ve turned it into a competition instead.

Step back and look at it for what it is. If those complex routines are truly helping you, go ahead. If not, you are free to step back and just do what works for you.

That’s true work-life balance—a place where both your work and life are panning out as you want. YOU ARE THE KEY. Always remember that!

See you next Sunday!