2005 Archive

Going Beyond Balance
The Life-Work Integrity Assessment™ for Individuals

(Adapted from Andrea Jacques' forthcoming book)

Building Capacity to Thrive

Are you suffering from dissatisfaction, stress and burnout due to overwork and a lack of sustainable balance between life and work? Take the assessment (link below) to find out how you're really doing, and to learn how to build the capacity to thrive.

You Are Already In Balance
Finding Internal Balance Promotes Change Resiliency
Thriving Requires "Shifting the Balance"
The Life-Work Integrity Assessment™ (PDF quiz)

You Are Already In Balance

Balance is "a state of equilibrium; a condition in which all acting influences are cancelled by others, resulting in a stable, or unchanging system." The balance mechanism naturally functions to try to maintain the state you are currently in.

Consider the following examples:

The six cups of coffee you drink each day balance out the fact that you do not get enough sleep or exercise and find your energy lagging throughout the day.
The venting you do to your spouse about the annoying person at work eases the pressure just enough so that you can continue to make excuses for not doing anything about the situation.
The long hours you work keep you from having to deal with the fact that you wouldn't really know what to do with yourself if you had more free time anyway.

If any of the above statements ring true for you, you may not like the type of balance you have, but to a certain degree, you are already in balance.

It is part of human nature to prefer the discomfort of the known to the discomfort of the unknown. This fear helps to maintain equilibrium in the short term by causing us to give up our efforts before healthy new habits have had a chance to become our new comfort zone.

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Finding Internal Balance Promotes Change Resiliency

A final challenge with balance is that, while we have control over some elements of our lives and work, many elements are constantly changing and beyond our control and our ability to predict. Change is constant. At an emotional and physical level, we desire balance and stability because it helps us feel safe. But external stability is impossible. Learning to thrive requires creating lasting internal stability and balance that will allow us to take charge of and thrive on any amount of external change that may occur.

So if balance can be part of the problem, what's the alternative?

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Thriving Requires "Shifting the Balance"

Thriving requires constantly shifting your balance to a more ideal state. Rather than focusing on work-life balance, this can be achieved by enhancing the state of wholeness, alignment and harmony between who you are and what you do.

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