Professional & Personal: A delicate balancing act

Let us for a moment consider our personal & professional lives as a cohesive whole, the yin-yang as a culmination of what inspires us as a whole. You’ve likely heard at least the opening of the phrase “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. What does it mean to be dull? To me, it means to be uninspired. If we are not inspired, we are likely also not particularly motivated. So let’s dive into how we play.

How we play, or rather what we do in our personal lives either increases or decreases our energy levels, self-confidence & overall motivation. Consequently, our lifestyles have a corresponding impact on our professional lives.

The personal & professional is not and can not be mutually exclusive.

While we recognize that not everything is within the bounds of our control, though we may wish it to be, let’s review the areas in our personal lives we do have control over.

Sleep, hobbies, habits, nutrition, exercise and so forth. The list goes on quite extensively.

Lets use Example Ed & Example Eli to exemplify this point.

Supposing that Example Ed & Example Eli have pretty similar professional dynamics and workloads. Upper management, 50+ hours a week, workplace manageable but hectic at times.

Example Ed is nutritionally balanced, walks outside 4 days a week for 30 minutes & does some sort of other activity that sparks joy (boxing, zoom rumba – you get the idea). Ed also spends one evening a week reading a book, any book that adds value to his profession. He makes sure its of motivating authors he likes. During this time he turns off the TV, makes a favorite snack and enjoys being in the moment. As a hobby he likes to paint. That is his passion and he makes time do set everything aside (including his phone) once every other Sunday.

Example Eli on the other hand does minimal activity. Let’s say he is less nutritionally balanced. Lifestyle decisions have significantly impacted his motivation and energy levels and so he spends the bulk of his time outside work on social media and watching TV.

Now lets suppose Example Ed and Example Eli are having to deal with some sort of urgent issue at work. Ask yourself who you think would have the energy and the capacity to problem solve effectively?