GOPAY: Problems with Work-Life Balance

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I've been working on my own basically my whole life, and this year marks the 25th anniversary since starting my entrepreneurial journey in 1992. Being an entrepreneur naturally comes with a lifestyle that makes it difficult to draw the line between work and life.

Discussion about work life balance is not very productive when your business (like a big part of) your life,

especially when you start it. And while many are telling me that we must separate life from work to being happy, I do not believe in such a separation. This is the reason.

As individuals, we all represent one unit - with the soul of body, mind, and (depending on your belief). Thinking that we can separate ourselves into work and life without losing something bigger - is a mistake. Yes, certain circumstances require us to focus or specialize on time and by doing that makes us successful like that, but keeping separate work and life does not keep us intact and in the long run unfulfilled.

We all know that the sum is more than the parts, but we give that amount so little attention in our daily lives. Mastering work and living in harmony is not the same as the balance between work and life, because in harmony and mastery there is nothing "balanced". Rather it is about fulfilling all the issues you care about and all of your responsibilities with 100% dedication, while carefully choosing which other person you really want to be noticed. Because in the end,

why bother, if you do not care?

Some time ago I have watched TED speak "How to stress your friends" that is very echoing with me and changing my attitude towards how we perceive stress. Actually it is not the stress that is the enemy, on the contrary: stress actually supports us in mastering the challenges.

Having been told throughout my life that stress is bad for you, changing my attitude toward stress is not easy. The same is true for the work-life balance aspect, or worse, after accustomed to thinking there must be different principles for life and work.

So I want to know how my principles (and consequently their values) are differentiated from how I approach life vs. how I approach work. To find out, I ask myself whether my set of values and principles is the result of looking at the larger number of images or only part of the parts, namely work or life. And although the origin of their questions and answers for some extensions varies depending on the culture you live in (and / or live), they can still serve as a simple guide to determine whether you are achieving "living harmony" or are you still struggling with "balance working life "

Say you have told a friend that you will meet tomorrow at 2:00. Chances are you will meet well - but if you are not feeling well, you will cancel without any problems, knowing that your friends will understand.

Now the image is the same in the work environment. You have told colleagues that you will meet tomorrow at 2 pm. Will you still cancel it easily, assuming that your colleagues will understand? Will you have the same sense of punctuality for the meeting? More? Less?

Whatever your answer, this is just one example where, without much thought, we apply different principles. The consequence, however, is that it forces us to dilute the value of our principles.

IF indeed I make timeliness one of my core principles, then there should be no difference whether I meet a friend, colleague, or someone new. Ideally, that principle should be calculated as a whole in my life, and not just in its different segments. Those values are what we live across the board and are most consistent with us, who have the power to make us whole and contribute to the harmony of life we seek.

We all have our principles and values, and perhaps they define ourselves more than we allow to believe. What principles do you have, especially where you do not make the separation between work and life?