I once heard Jack Welch say there is no such thing as work-life balance, only work and life choices. The key to balancing the commitments in your life is to choose how you will spend your time. Once you make that choice, be present with the people or task you’ve committed to for that period of time. Taking control of your schedule requires a certain emotional control in which you allow yourself to react to normal life events, but you also hold yourself accountable to a realistic set of expectations.
—Carisa Miklusak, CEO, president, of tilr
I focus on being present in the moment, no matter where I am. Even with so much going on, I am mindful that when I am at work, I am committed to work, but when I am home, I am with my family and am fully engaged. This helps me feel more balanced about where I am spending my energy.
—David Thomas, co-founder, CEO, Evident ID
Time is a finite resource and balancing the long list of potential commitments requires the ability to say no. I try to avoid making commitments that are not significant to me, and find a way to make time for the things I care about. I would rather spend my Sunday morning at the gym, my afternoon at Angel Stadium and my night at dinner with my parents instead of sleepwalking through the day.
—Adam Mendler, CEO, The Veloz Group
My wife, who’s an executive at a Fortune 500 company, and I put a lot of thought into how to handle work-life balance. For me, it comes down to working exceptionally hard when I’m working, making it a priority to get home to my family for dinner, and then using late evenings and parts of weekends to complete tasks that truly need to get done. There was a time when I had a child along with a demanding career that I could still prioritize date nights with my wife and spending time with close friends, but ultimately something had to give. In my case, I cut out work that isn’t necessary along with social gatherings that I don’t find meaningful.
—Aaron Michel, CEO, PathSource
I believe in diversifying joy sources [more than work-life balance], so I try to keep track of that one thing and switch it up. For instance, if I had a time-intensive workweek, I try to give my friends and family extra attention on the weekend. I fail at balance, as does everyone, but I also know that the pressure to be happy, balanced and functional actually results in the opposite.
—Rebecca Devaney, co-founder, CEO, Hunter Creative Labs
Related: 4 Rules of a Healthy Work-Life Balance
This article originally appeared in the December 2017 issue of SUCCESS magazine.
