Make Time To Take Care Of Yourself | A Novel Concept

I have written before about life balance. This is a topic of great interest to me. A topic I am continually trying to get my head around. I look around me and see my friends and colleagues running around like chickens with their heads cut off. I see them taking work home at night and over the weekend. I see them continually updating the never ending "Task List." And I see them never taking any time for themselves. Some have developed health issues. Some have put on weight or find that they are ill all the time.

The one thing all these people have in common is that feeling that if they are behind at work,they need to focus on that and work even harder. They figure that if they get their act together at the office, they will be able to go to their boss and ask for some time off to focus on their life balance goals.

Seems to me we have it all wrong. Seems to me we have it backwards. Seems to me that in this situation the first thing we give up, the first thing we sacrifice is our personal life, our personal well-being. Seems to me that when we sacrifice our personal well-being we actually make it harder to succeed in our work. Personally, I find that I am more productive on the days I get to exercise. I am more productive on the days following a good night's sleep. I am more productive when I am happy and just spent the evening with my family at the movies or bowling.

Seems to me if you are feeling stressed at work, tired, unhappy, lacking energy, you ought to take a step back from work and focus on yourself. Even if all you do is catch up on your sleep for one night, it's going to help. Darren Rowse is a blogger I have a lot of respect for. Check out his Activity/Rest Matrix to get another look at what I'm writing about here (Activity/Rest Matrix).

Most of us think if we take that step back and divert our focus from work to ourselves, our job will be in jeopardy. I believe it is really quite the opposite. Taking that step back and focusing on balancing your life, feeling better, increasing your stamina, putting a smile back on your face, will increase your performance on the job and make you happier in all aspects of your life.