Balance is imperative in order to have a high quality of life.
Through the pages of the chapters that follow you will understand why balance is so difficult to reach, but also how making the effort to reach it will add joy and fulfillment to all areas of your life. You are substantially more productive and efficient in your work-life when you have overall balance.
“Any crisis involving an important relationship will greatly hinder someone’s productivity because they will simply not be able to focus.”
You may struggle with this concept at first brush, because you might be locked into the “time invested equals productivity” paradigm. If you are not exactly sure what a paradigm is, it is a commonly held belief that may or may not be true. (3) For example, for centuries there was a paradigm that the world was flat. Everyone believed this, but obviously it was never true. It has always generally been thought that the people who spent the most time at the office got the most work done. The recent advancements in technology have begun to change that line of thinking because someone can be anywhere and be working in today’s society. However my premise for feeling that time invested does not equate to equal amounts of productivity relate more to what a person deals with in their life. Any crisis involving an important relationship will greatly hinder someone’s productivity because they will simply not be able to focus. Therefore, I believe it is your state of mind, and the quality of your efforts which shapes your productivity. Being in balance allows you to function with complete mental clarity, and therefore at a high level, most of the time.
it is your state of mind, and the quality of your efforts which shapes your productivity.
When fictitious Bob finds out what kinds of choices his son is making, how do you think he will feel? When he confronts John and finds out that John has become distant from him and doesn’t trust him, and feels he isn’t loved or cared for, what kind of impact will that have on Bob? Do you think it will only be an issue in his mind when he is home? Of course not. When Bob realizes the degree of this crisis, it will dominate his thought-life. When Bob is on the job he will have difficulty being focused, attentive, creative, or joyful. Bob will be in an important meeting and instead of focusing on what is going on, he will be thinking about his son. He will be sitting at his desk, and instead of doing his work he will be staring off into space contemplating the situation. Wherever Bob is his mind will be on John. He will not only be ineffective in his job, but he will also struggle in the other roles that I haven’t even discussed.
Bob will be in an important meeting and instead of focusing on what is going on, he will be thinking about his son.
The crisis Bob faces in his father role will not be a quick fix either. It could be something that influences Bob’s life for years to come depending on the depth to which the problem has grown. Relationships, just like people, don’t typically develop a major sickness over night. A relationship that has become unhealthy has been suffering from neglect for a long time; correspondingly, it will take a long time to mend. When you are balanced you are clear-headed and operate at your peak effectiveness, because you are not shackled with the emotional problems that are born out of neglect. This is the reason I refer to this way of life as “Living Full and Living Well.”
“Live Full, Live Well” is available at www.balanceprofessor.com. Tomorrow we will see deeper into the productivity ramifications of balance both individually and organizationally.
