- How often have you been in a meeting and your mind wanders to the argument you had with your spouse that morning?
- Feel like you have just run a marathon even though you have just climbed two flights of stairs.
- You have been asked to come up with some new creative ideas to tackle a particular challenge your boss has identified and your mind is blank.
- It is Monday morning and the last thing you want to do is get up and go to work.
What do all these scenarios have in common?
Everyone is talking about work/life balance yet every day we read about employee burnout, executive stress and the huge hours that self employed business people have to work just to make ends meet. How often have you been in a meeting and your mind wanders to the argument you had with your spouse that morning? - Feel like you have just run a marathon even though you have just climbed two flights of stairs.
- You have been asked to come up with some new creative ideas to tackle a particular challenge your boss has identified and your mind is blank.
- It is Monday morning and the last thing you want to do is get up and go to work.
What do all these scenarios have in common? Answer: Our performance and effectiveness at work is seriously compromised due to factors completely unrelated to the working environment. The scenarios above are clear indicators that our work and personal lives may be out of balance and are in need of attention. Here is a practical straight forward 5 step tried and tested technique that will assist you in bringing more balance into your life. Not only will your effectiveness, productivity and enthusiasm at work improve but you will also get improved health, more time for romance, fun and friends and a greater sense of life purpose. STEP 1.The Life Balance challenge. Rate the following 8 areas of your life from 1-10 based on how satisfied you presently are with each area. 1 is extremely dissatisfied and 10 is completely satisfied. The 8 areas are STEP 2: Review your ratings and select one area that has a low rating that you feel you would like to prioritise to improve. STEP 3: Ask yourself the question; starting today, what can I do to increase this rating by 2 points. (I.e. if the original rating was 4, what can I do to make it a 6?). Be as specific as possible and it always helps to assign a deadline for any action you need to take. STEP 4: Here comes the most important part. Take ACTION today, however small to start moving yourself towards that higher rating. Keep taking persistent action until you have achieved or indeed exceeded the desired rating. STEP 5: Select another area of your life and repeat steps 3 through 5. Sounds simple doesn’t it, but simple and all as it is, very few people ever take time out of their busy lives to look at the big picture. Whether we like it or not all the different elements of our lives are interdependent. It is up to each of us individually to figure out how to make the relationship between work and the other elements of our lives productive and not destructive. While it would appear that the majority of us would love a healthy balance between all the different elements of our lives, it seems that for most, this balance is proving to be as elusive as a European Cup trophy for the Muster rugby team. If you follow the steps above, you can get more balance into your life. Fergal O’Connor is a Business and Personal Life Coach working in partnership with his Business and Private clients providing a supportive, confidential, challenging and non-judgemental environment to make their ambitions and dreams a reality. Fergal can be contacted at Synergy Coaching Services, Tel: (061) 467287, email
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Limerick Leader 25th June 2005 Copyright 2005 Synergy Coaching Services.
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