Work-life: How to find a balance 
We all go through a work-life struggle trying to find a balance, believing in our heads that we will do it soon; We want a high-profile, well-paying job and to be there for all our family’s special moments. We want to take responsibility and move up the corporate ladder, yet we do not want to skip a weekend with our family and friends, and take long vacations in the summer.
The post-COVID-19 era increased the focus on individual well-being and gave more flexibility and understanding of employees’ personal lives and needs. In the US and many parts of Europe, companies with flexible workstyle models that allow remote working became attractive places to work instead of those that did not offer this benefit. The number of resignations from companies that lacked flexible work styles increased compared to before COVID-19. Remote working became a decisive factor for new hires, more important than salaries in many cases.
Many are willing to take a pay cut to be in a better corporate culture that supports a flexible workstyle, or under a good leader who can help them find their potential and grow. Mental stability at the workplace (physical or virtual) is vital to all workers.
We all have four quadrants in our lives; work, personal, physical and spiritual. You get 100 percent of your life’s components by adding them together. Some divide their time and energy equally and give 25 percent to each, while others ignore their health/body quadrant and focus more on the other three areas. Some decide to have a family, which is their priority quadrant, while others wish to devote their lives to helping others, like doctors who travel the world supporting people in need and have no time to build a stable family in one place.
Your career should be something you enjoy, giving you a sense of self-worth. If not, work on yourself to grow and elevate to find your desired job.
The question then would be how to find that balance. Well, I believe the balance lies in knowing your vision. Once you know that, you will know your priorities, and you will find yourself acting accordingly. So, suppose your vision is related to having a family first; in that case, you cannot commit to a job that requires you to work over 10 hours a day and on weekends, even if the money is good, simply because that means you will not be delivering on your vision of family first. On the other hand, you will notice that all the fast movers up the corporate ladder give that quadrant more points at the expense of other quadrants, but as long as they are OK with it, that is OK. It is all a reflection of one’s priorities in life.
I will finish with some food for thought on this matter.
Have a vision
That is not easy to know and set, but trust me; it is an important area to invest your time and energy in. Once you find the answer to it, every decision will be easy. Your vision will set your mission and values, giving you a set of standards you will not be willing to compromise on and undermine.
Find a career that fits your passion
Your career should be something you enjoy, giving you a sense of self-worth. If not, work on yourself to grow and elevate to find your desired job.
Big jobs cost time
The more you move up the corporate ladder, the fewer real breaks you will have, giving you less personal time. It is just part of the formula.
In the movie “The Devil’s Advocate,” Kevin informs his boss, John, that his wife is sick and mentally unstable. So John asks Kevin to focus on what matters most — his wife — and get off work for a while. But Kevin’s vanity skyrockets. He argues that working is best for his marriage and says: “You know what scares me? I quit the case, and she gets better, and I hate her for it.”
Nothing worthwhile comes without hard work. In all cases, it is your life and yours alone. The ultimate level of maturity is to claim responsibility for everything that happens to you. Think about it; if you say it is your responsibility, logically, you can fix and control it. But if you say that it is someone else’s fault this or that happened, you are relieving yourself from the steering wheel, and you will not be able to solve it, as you cannot control other people’s decisions.
• Rakan Tarabzoni is the chief operating officer of the FII Institute. He began his career in business management at Procter & Gamble. He later moved to Microsoft, then to the Public Investment Fund as head of Corporate Communications. Tarabzoni established a personal blog on self-development and growth in 2011 under his name www.RakanTarabzoni.com.
