How much have you given up on the quest to get ahead? If your idea of success is stretching as high as you can, as hard as you can, as fast as you can, we need to talk.
If your plan to reach your goals involves full-on focus that sacrifices your personal life, it’s time to hit pause and reconsider your approach. If the determination is coming at the cost of your peace of mind and your physical wellbeing, you’re not running on the right path.
Let’s just cut to the chase: setting high goals for yourself should not require you to press the limits and push toward burnout. Yes, when you’re launching your own business, you’re going to roll up your sleeves and put in long hours. You’re going to work hard. You’re going to put your heart into it. But, if you’re feeling physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted, you may be on the brink of burnout. If you’re losing sleep to worry, if you’re experiencing headaches or carry stress in your body that feels a lot like muscle aches, you may be experiencing burnout.
Feeling cynical or detached? Feeling overwhelmed or decision paralysis? Feeling an aching exhaustion that is more than just a lack of sleep? That’s not success. That’s burnout. You don’t need to push yourself to the brink to get ahead. You need a better strategy that balances your health and peace of mind with your career and life goals.
Yes, you read that right. In this context, balance isn’t about a 50-50 split. This isn’t about setting up the scales and finding the sweet spot where work and life sit centered on a plane. Saying yes to something requires you to say no to something else. The trick here is to find that sweet spot where you can build a life – professional and personal – that doesn’t wear you down. As you’re growing your business or career, perhaps that means you’re putting more time and focus on the work side of the coin.
Balance is remembering to make space for the things and people that recharge your battery and bring you joy. It means investing in relationships outside the office. It means hitting pause to get to your son’s concert and your daughter’s art show. It means carving out space for dinner with your partner. It may mean saying no to the potential account that will require you to sacrifice more time and energy than you can spare today.
Balance is about striking the right mix between doing the things that move you closer to your goals and holding on to the things that ground you. It’s about recognizing that sacrifice doesn’t mean “at all cost.” You will need to weigh how much you’re willing to give up in the process, and then adjust that line as needed with careful consideration.
What matters to you? When you’re living out your last days, and you look back on your life, what achievements will you linger over with a smile? What aspects of today will you want to define your life in the long term? When future generations tell your story, what things do you hope make the highlight reel? Those are your values. Those are the things that matter to you, and, perhaps more importantly, those are the things that deserve your time and your attention today.
You may have several buckets that need your focus, and that’s fine. Remember, setting your focus on your success is about achieving a balance that makes space for the things that matter – not the ‘thing.’
A quick search on the idea that success requires balance will return a mix of results ranging from the experts that think balance and success cannot coexist to pieces like this one. So, what’s a hard-working, goal driven pro to do? Let’s just revisit the point above: balance doesn’t mean a 50-50 split. You absolutely can find the sweet spot between giving the energy and time required to reach your goals and excel as an entrepreneur or a business leader climbing the ranks of your career, while not giving up everything else that matters to you.
You may have to miss a soccer game or say no to that spa day your friend invited you to because you’ve got a big meeting or a tight deadline. That doesn’t mean you give it all up. Don’t end up at the finish line and discover that you don’t enjoy the victory because you’re exhausted or disconnected from the things that matter more to you than this win.
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