The Myth of Work-Life Balance

The original transcript of the dialogue between Me (M) and the Enlightened One (E)

E:

Could you please explain this to me? Why do we work?

M:

I would have loved to be without any work, but first, it would have never got approval from my parents. And second, in all likelihood, I would have remained unmarried as a consequence.

E:

We have been told since childhood that our work is something that defines our identity.

Hence it is of utmost importance to get into the work profile, which gets the highest number of validation from the society.

As a result, there is an elaborate arrangement to get ourselves educated to qualify for that specific nature of work.

M:

I couldn’t agree with you more.

E:

However, this widespread myth is sold primarily by inculcating the fear of insecurity in us.

M:

How?

E:

What we are looking for is nothing but a wild chase for all kinds of security.

Physical security, emotional security, psychological security, social security, financial security.

As long as we struggle with the constant fear of suffering, security would always remain our first and foremost concern.

And this constant fear of suffering is not the best place to explore all the possibilities of life.

However, we end up shaping our life within the shadows of chasing these securities. And as a consequence, life happens to manifest itself in its most pedestrian form possible.

M:

Then how should we manage our work-life balance to explore the limitless boundaries of life fully?

E:

This whole work-life balance issue will always remain a lifelong irritant as long as we keep identifying our work as something of an impediment in the smooth flow of life.

Let’s have a pragmatic look at this work-life balance.

If you are fortunate enough to have a 9–5 job, then after including your commute time, the whole work aspect of your day might take 10 hours.

Let’s say you sleep 7 hours.

That means you are left with a total of 7 hours to take care of the things that lie outside the purview of work related activities.

10 hours(work) Vs. 7 hours(life)

Where is the balance?

Besides, we often spend most of our free time thinking, worrying, and discussing work.

Therefore work, and life can not be treated as separate.

They are the same; there is only one thing, it’s called LIFE.

Work is indeed part of your life. It’s never competing against it.

Family is important; friends are important. Vacations are important.

But work is a huge part of who you are as a person. Therefore by default, work becomes one of the most important things in life.

That’s the reason, and It’s not out of place to say that there’s no such thing as a work-life balance.

Work is life.

Period.

M:

Sounds pretty simple.

E:

It is indeed.

If, for some reason, work is holding back your personal or spiritual growth, find different work.

If work is messing up your relationships, don’t hesitate to find different work.

Don’t complicate things by being obdurate.

Once you are willing to venture outside the shadow of insecurities, there will be an instant realization on your part that it’s only “work” if you don’t like it.

If you love doing what you do, it doesn’t feel like work.

And of course, you will still need balance because you need balance with everything you do.

Because you can’t survive on a diet of instant noodles, you can try it yourself.

M:

?

E:

You definitely don’t need work-life balance because you might need to make some drastic changes with either one of them if you do.

And this either means changing your present job (yes, you can) or simply looking at your job from a different perspective.

Maybe you don’t like your job because society never tires you by telling that it’s cool to hate what you do from Monday to Friday.

Just look around and see how much society celebrates Fridays and hates Mondays, but shouldn’t it be the other way around?

If we really love what we do, Shouldn’t we be all sad every Friday because it would take us away from something we love doing?

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Let me know your thoughts; I’d love to hear them !?

Have an amazing week.