What's this thing called work-life balance?

Date Night – a romantic dinner at Cafe Sicilia complete with red wine, candle light and a very delicious (but very cheesy) heart shaped dessert.

As foodie I was in my element but no matter how hard I tried I struggled to pull my mind away from the urge to check my @coachingink twitter account. How many followers now!?

Much to the frustration of my partner, many dinner conversations are now spent discussing my next big idea or newest strategy.

As a small business owner I have been dealing with a new understanding of what work-life balance means.

Back when I was a typical corporate professional I was dedicated to doing a good job, I worked long hours and said yes to everything. Work-life balance was always a mystical creature, but one which was much more easy to define. For me it was the ability to ‘let go’ of the day when I left the office. I wasn’t always successful, but it was achievable.

When I started Coaching Ink, as a means to follow my passion and to change the way people exist at work, I originally envisaged being able to incorporate more of this so called work-life balance. However, I am now, more often than not, left scrambling for new ways of dealing with a different level of work commitment. I really love what I do, but I also value spending quality time with my family and friends.

So this got me thinking, when we transition into a new phase of life, or a new career, should we spend some time re-evaluating what work-life balance means at that point in time? What are the new boundaries? What are the new rules? What activities create enjoyment? What tasks augment achievement and meaning?

Read more about work life balance in the article Four Ways to Create More Balance