Life

Work-life balance can seem impossible in the beginning if you don't believe in it. When I started out in business, I was so occupied that I saw the need to pay attention to other areas of my life. First, I thought there was something wrong with me feeling that way. Later, I discovered there are many other business owners who felt the same way and are doing everything to achieve it. Society has imbedded in us its definition of success in business. You work as many hours as possible and with time you scale up in every direction. We most times think we can problems by adding more to the solution. When what we need is removing more from the problems. How true can this be? As much as we want to grow our income, there is a point we decay if we don’t take care of other areas' lives. And the funny thing is, we end up spending more of what we have accumulated to get back on our feet. Who lost? “When we are young, we lose our health to gain wealth. When we are old, we lose our wealth to regain our health.” What a paradox! Growth like knowledge is not always profitable, and some growth can make you lose yourself, reducing you to nothing. That’s because the conventional business growth explains you need to reach more customers, spend more money on Ad, hire more employees and buy more tools. So, you end up living your life in the pursuit of more. Do you know you can get more customers by increasing your effectiveness with your existing ones? This article explains what you need to know about work-life balance. You will learn how what you need is not the conventional growth, but being better. Introducing Work-Life Balance I was at a business seminar listening to one of the successful pastors in Nigeria. He said he had been receiving emails from members asking him to come open another branch of his church in their own state. He replied them asking if they would maintain the church values in the branch. He ended declining. What he (the pastor) was trying to pass across is that you don't need the conventional growth (open more branches) before you become successful. And I asked myself, if University of Ibadan is so successful, why they didn’t have branches across the country, at least in Abuja – Nigeria's capital. Could that mean we have missed the true meaning of growth in business? Growth is we getting better, not getting more. We all want to grow bigger–open more offices, hire more employees, buy more infrastructure. And with time, we lose the true essence of why we started the business and become frustrated because of its demands. Organisations physically operating from a central location (with online extension) have been able to maintain a high level of excellence than others. We are always in motion, our actions become mechanical, and our life full of stress. Soon, we become good friends to technology (mobiles, computers, and electronics) to avoid vetting our own thought. Little do we know that it’s in our sitting down alone exploring our own thought that we generate mind-blowing ideas? It is when you sit with your own thoughts that you can look through your day-to-day business activities and make wise decision. Work-Life Balance Meaning/Definitions Work-Life Balance is winning at business and succeeding in life. It questions the traditional beliefs of life about success. Those with work-life balance understand that there is more to life than making a profit. They know you don’t make more by pursuing more. That more is not the smartest answers to the challenges of life. Whether you are a business owner or an employee, it is your responsibility to ensure you achieve work-life balance. While it may be difficult as an employee yet it is possible. You achieving work-life balance will set a friendly atmosphere and help the company succeed in the long run. With a work-life balanced life, you are aware of what the company needs, knows your talent and provide solutions. It is when all is well with you and at home that all can be well with your business. A work-life balance life is not an anti-progress or anti-growth life. It’s a life of meaning. Why You Need Work-Life Balance Here are reasons you should embrace the work-life balance concepts. You become more self-reliant in your decisions. You understand you are responsible for your life. People celebrate your difference and uniqueness. You don’t trade time or energy for money. You become better and more productive. You operate and profit using automations and systems. You become more creative in solving problems freshly. You build your business around your life and not the other way round. You achieve more doing less. How to Achieve a Work-Life Balance in Business and Life Become Effective to Your Existing Customers: This will reduce the need to spend more money on Ads before you could get new customers. They will voluntarily do the work for you. Create Explanatory Tutorials: This will help customers best understand what you sell and how to use them without making a support request. Automate Your Repetitive Task: You can automate most things you are doing repeatedly. This will help you reduce time you spend on activities. Cut Cost on Unnecessary Things: You can save more to invest if you will reduce your expenses on some things that are optional. Stick with One Business: This is against the popular beliefs that say you have to have 7 income sources to become a billionaire. More income isn’t same as more business. You don’t need to create 7 more business. You only need to create 7 incomes from one business. Qualities You Need to Attain Work Life Balance Responsibility Don’t pray for life to be easy. Pray you become tougher. I have faced many challenges that I thought it would crush me. Yet, I kept standing. As you drive towards a work-life balance life, you will face challenges you never prayed for. Such as. Your Boss firing you. Low income (at least for some few months), Changing job market Mental fatigue Doubt arising. And more. It’s your duty to recover quick and fast from these troubles. You can’t afford to remain on the ground. Your ability to take control of your life will take far more than your trainings and skills. So, do well to embrace challenges and work towards making it a testimony. When you are responsible, you accept reality as it is. You don’t daydream or engage in wishes. “I wish it was like this…”, “If only this will happen” Those will not be your though. By taking responsibility, you analyze the problem using the right judgment then seek a solution to it. Let me tell you something There is a lousy engine working close to where I am writing this. But that won’t stop me from writing. By taking responsibility, you have a sense of purpose and meaning. You don’t start a business solely for making money. You do first to help those in need and the money flows. Also, you can respond and not react to changes around you. You have an understanding that change is constant and so you are always ready to either adapt or pivot. Expertise Many people desire excellence in their work, but only a few could achieve it. Why? The Lack of Expertise. You will know a man by three things: His Punctuality to meetings (What respect does he have for time?) His Integrity to his words (Does he keep his promises?) Quality of his works (How good is he in what he does?) You need to be good at what you do before you can totally achieve work-life balance. Though this doesn’t stop you from having the desire even as a beginner in your industry. At the start of your business, understand you will need more time so you can gain mastery of your skill. It is your expertise that would bring you better clients translating to higher profit. You can select the customers you want and the projects you want to work on. All of this wouldn’t be possible if you are not a master at what you do. As an expert in your field, you mix accuracy with speed. You know how to get things done using new and faster methods, saving you time for other important things. And if markets need changes, you can easily make a turn and take advantage of the new trend. Simplicity When you see a man with a work-life balance, the first quality you will notice is his simplicity. This is one of the most admirable qualities I have in my life. I live with the mantra, "Let’s keep it simple." As we grow, we buy more and more things that clutter our life. We take on more and more project that squeeze from us the good things of life. I realize that simplicity is the most complicated sophistication in the world. That's not simple right! Hahaha. Simplicity in words, actions, thoughts helps facilitate a work-life balance. Soon you understand that what you need is not adding more but removing more. As an ecommerce specialist, I realized having too many products or services and aiming for more markets is a recipe for disaster. The thought of needing a vast amount of money to start a business shows you are taking on complex needs even at the beginning. Also, adding more tools to business or materials to life will not help achieve work-life balance. We add more things to our business to make it easy instead they turn out complicated. We forgot, "Simple is not the same as easy." In your business, start by helping one customer and then another and then another. I encourage you to live your life as simple as possible to achieve work-life balance. It’s hard to find fault with a man of great simplicity. Conclusion Don’t become a victim of blind growth as it will lead to you managing more employees, paying unplanned cost and more time working. The entire essence of work-life balance is to become better in every area of your life. It is attaining financial freedom without mental bondage. The good thing is you can withstand any horrible problems in business and life. You choosing work-life balance doesn’t mean you are a mediocre or a failure. No! It means you choose to have every area of life stable with a long-term focus.