4 Ways to Turn this Sprint Mentality into a Marathon

Juggling Work-Life Balance: Achieving Success With People to Enjoy it With

Juggling work-life balance is hard when you’re obsessed with your passion. Not many people have the luxury of saying they love what they do – so consider yourself lucky.I understand your obsession – the more effort and time you invest, the more growth you see. Other areas in your life aren’t as fruitful and rewarding so it’s easy to push these on the back burner.Juggling work-life balance is by far my biggest struggle in life – my hustle is my crux and transformed me into a workaholic. I spend so much of my time treating my goal as a sprint instead of pacing myself for a marathon.I expect to win this race overnight sometimes.This exhausting pace I’m on has put me in a position of neglecting important things in my life such as my personal well-being, my loved ones and my close friends.I wrote this to share the four ways I approach juggling work-life balance properly to achieve success with people to enjoy it with. You and I need to pace ourselves and see the bigger picture.Otherwise, we have a good chance of succeeding alone.

1. Look for the Warning Signs

We’re told to “find what you love and let it kill you,” so what’s the big deal?You may be so wrapped up in your work that you’re blind to the daunting issue. If this sounds like you, it’s time to start looking for some of the warning signs:

Do you basically live in your office – missing meals with your significant other?
Is your nose buried in your computer, sketchbook and phone all day?
Do emails, meetings and small talk take priority over conversing with loved ones?
Do people never call or text you anymore to make plans?

These were signs that clearly stated I had a problem but I was too busy to notice them.Hopefully you’re lucky like me to have a wife or someone close who will call you out when you’re slipping – if so, you need to hear them out.[perfectpullquote align="full" cite="" link="" color="1c1c1c" class="" size="32"]“How much do you love your work that you’re willing to sacrifice losing someone?”[/perfectpullquote]I used to brush off the constant nagging because I felt she didn’t believe in me or my dreams.Did she not understand that I’m creating a better future life for both of us?Eventually I received a threat I couldn’t ignore.Emily exclaimed that if I continued on this path of focusing every ounce of energy I had into work that she didn’t envision us lasting – she refused to be a backseat passenger on my journey. It crushed me when I realized I was pushing her away.What good is attaining success when you have no one to share it with?Becoming aware you have a problem is the first step towards juggling work-life balance properly. The next step is getting unimportant tasks off your plate.

2. Saying No Makes Time

How many things are on your plate or in the queue that feel important yet aren’t providing value to your main goals?In order to make time for juggling work-life balance, it’s crucial to locatetheseareasto saynoto. This is how you makemore time for what’s most important.People like you and I need to focus on are the things that will yield us the highest ROI – which is the biggest return on our investment. These are areas which require our greatest focus which includes your passion and personal life.Focus on the work that will get to you where you want to be and focus on making time for the people that matter the most.Everything else that didn’t make the cut can be killed off or delegated.You do this by performing a self-audit on your daily/weekly work load. This allows you to objectively look at the tasks that are unimportant and not providing value to the main goal.You have to say no.Putting first things first and saying no to the petty tasks will put you in a position to find balance. However, sometimes you must say no to things that are too good to pass up – this is when you must sacrifice.

3. Sacrifice For a Greater Cause

Juggling work-life balance as a creative comes with sacrifice.It’s easy to sacrifice when you see results in the business realm – but for some reason it’s harder to sacrifice to make time for your personal life. You feel it’s holding you back from reaching those goals that are right around the corner.Believe me, I know.In order to find that balance, there will sometimes be things you have to say no to that may yield the largest business ROI. You have to say no to things when your loved ones need you. This sacrifice is worth it as you never want them to feel less important than what you had planned.I recently set aside some time to read this important book to help prepare me for my first public speech. I had this planned all day and even got ready for bed early so I could have ample time to read. However, my wife was having a rough day and she wanted to talk about some things literally right when I opened my book to start.The old, unaware me would’ve told her I was busy and explained why. The self-aware me realized that listening to my wife talk about her struggles was way more important than 2 hours of reading. We had an awesome talk and she realized that I put her as top priority; this made her feel important becauseshe is.She means everything to me and that’s how you need to treat your loved ones.When you lock down this way of thinking, sacrificing becomes a bit easier.

4. Scheduling Success

Are you someone who religiously uses a planner and / or a calendar to make sure you’re on track of everything?Well that definitely wasn’t me.Every day I would wing it and go with the flow. I had an idea of what I wanted to get done and this consisted of doing the things I was most passionate about – and not the things I wasn’t which caused problems.However, when I started to organize and schedule my daily and weekly priorities, I saw a massive growth in productivity and balance within my life because what gets scheduled gets done.When you realize what’s most important in your work and personal life, I find it important to get these things locked down on a calendar or planner. This is scheduling your success.Breaking your tasks into scheduled chunks of focus time ensures that you are finding balance.I schedule allotted times for:

writing
drawing
meetings
replying to emails / messages
gym
food prepping
date nights with wife
etc.

I do my best to openly communicatemy schedule with my wife so we are always on the same page.This was a huge issue in the past by winging it day-to-day. She was never in the loop of my workload or plans so when she would sporadically ask me to do something, I was always busy and she would feel neglected.Schedulingwhat matters most and communicate it clearly is a great way towards juggling work-life balance.The Search for Self-AwarenessLike I said, I struggle with this addiction and it is easily my biggest flaw. These are concepts I’m working on perfecting each day but I’m human like you. I don’t perform all of these to my peak of ability but when I have implemented them properly, they have helped me find the balance between work and life.I’m not promising anyone that this will fix your problems, but isn’t it worth a shot to try something to ensure you’re not succeeding alone down the road?Understand there is a bigger picture and the addiction isn’t a race. Pace yourself and live out a marathon with those who matter most.It’s a win-win scenario.

Key Takeaway

Your passion can serve as a gift and a curse
Passions can create workaholics
Don’t let loved ones feel like they aren’t a priority
Say no to the things that aren’t providing value and purpose
Stop treating your goals like a sprint, these things don’t happen overnight
Pace yourself and treat your goals as a marathon
Break your tasks into scheduled chunks of focus time
Schedule what matters most and communicate it clearly

-Are you receiving value in this post and find that you have questions in regards to finding your creative purpose? Your input and questions are what I build my content around so by joining my team, you have direct access to me for questions and advice. Your struggle will not only allow me to keep this focused on delivering targeted value, but can also help others who deal with your same issues.

Juggling Work-Life Balance: Achieving Success With People to Enjoy it With