The reality is that it's impossible to neatly separate professional from personal life. Technology, downsizing, and 21st century velocity have totally blurred those lines, as we answer email from our smartphones while supposedly on vacation, take conference calls while home with a sick child, or do a little online shopping in between meetings at the office.
So we juggle and attempt to do it all in a never-ending struggle to achieve work-life balance. However, in our way of thinking, work-life balance is an unrealistic and unattainable goal, which assumes there are two completely separate entities to balance on opposite sides of some illusory seesaw. There is nothing more frustrating for achievement-oriented people than striving for a goal they’ll never meet, so we contend it’s time for a different and more credible goal!
So what’s the alternative?…I mean, everyone calls it “work-life balance.”
Life-Work Infusion® - The key is to identify and infuse yourself with the distinctive “ingredients” that will “nourish” your success and ability to integrate the professional and personal.
Infuse (v): to cause to be permeated with something that alters usually for the better; to inspire; to animate
Infusion (n): the act or process of infusing
Can’t you just feel the ENERGY of the word Infusion?! We infuse our teas, our martinis, our chocolates, and our olive oils to make them taste better or seem healthier. So instead of drinking the “corporate Kool-Aid,” why not determine the unique elements that can infuse your life and career right now? They will look different for every person and change over time, and such variety is what keeps those ingredients from getting stale, if you will.
Life-Work Infusion® is based on four simple premises
(1) people are equally important assets to manage properly in any organization, be it a household or multinational corporation, (2) it is virtually impossible in this technologically-obsessed era to totally separate one’s personal from professional life, (3) a happy and fulfilled person is a more engaged, more motivated, more successful person, and (4) when you keep valued people “Infused,” there is far greater likelihood of success in keeping customers, colleagues, vendors, shareholders, partners, and/or family members delighted.
This approach to the work-life imbalance conundrum is more than a temporary Band-Aid and can result in lasting positive transformation of individuals, teams and organizations.
