Forget Trying to Balance Work and a Personal Life

There is nothing wrong with loving your job and not trying to balance every little aspect of your life. On the other hand, some people behave as though they’re living on a seesaw in their career, always in motion, afraid that if it stops moving for just one minute, the weight from their fat butt will force the wrong side to the ground, kersplatt, and then everybody will see them for the pitiful failure that they really are — that’s what people think.

Years ago people, OK, mainly men, loved their jobs, felt fulfilled by a career and enjoyed going to work. Today many men feel torn in two. Women in the 1970s were not always encouraged to feel deeply engrained in their careers lest they turn into an old maid. Today, women are told they can’t have it all so they better choose. Or, they better try harder to balance work and a personal life. Forget balance. It’s overrated. You’ll hear men and women alike swear that family comes first, and work comes second, like loving a job is evil or there is something fundamentally wrong with your makeup if you look forward to going to work.

Spittooey on crap. If you have to say that family comes first, maybe there is something out of whack that makes you feel the need to verbalize it in that manner? Because most people don’t talk about having to put family into their hearts because family already occupies a spot. And, so does work. I love my job, and I don’t apologize to anybody for it. It doesn’t mean I love anybody or anything else any less. It’s not either or. Love doesn’t get “used up.”

People feel almost guilty if they admit they love their job. Workaholic describes a person who finds pleasure in working. Why should that be wrong? Isn’t that what everybody should strive for? To find a job that they love to do to such an extent that it doesn’t become work? If I promise a real estate client I’ll be over to shoot photographs and sign listing paperwork, they can count on me to show up. I don’t use family as an excuse not to perform. I balance my temperament, it’s not necessary to try to balance work vs my personal life.