Tony Robbins Business Owner Mindset Report revealed an interesting contradiction about work and life balance: 53% of respondents didn’t think they needed to sacrifice the “life” part of the equation to get ahead at work, an increase from last year. Yet only 17% rated their work-life balance as “great.”
Why is work-life balance so low, but the aspiration for it so high? The fact is that as much as we want to reject it, the “hustle culture” still looms large in business. With the likes of Elon Musk saying you “have to put in 80- to 100-hour weeks every week” and Gary Vaynerchuk saying you need to “work your face off,” it’s no wonder we’re convinced work and life balance is an elusive equation.
This is why one of Tony’s best work-life balance tips may shock you: There is no such thing as work-life balance. There is only work-life integration.
What’s the difference? When you’ve achieved work-life integration, your work no longer feels like work. It lifts you up instead of draining you – and you get home with plenty of energy for your family, friends and hobbies. That’s because you’ve used these work-life balance tips to find your mission and incorporate it into your life.
Reach your goals faster and never lose momentum
Schedule your free sessionAccept that work and life balance doesn’t exist
The phrase “work and life balance” gives us the impression that the two are separate things. You have your CEO persona, your partner persona, your mother persona, and they are different parts of you that you must turn on or off like a switch. But that just isn’t true. When you focus on integrating work with life instead of treating life like a zero sum game, you’ll gain clarity and peace.
Jeff Bezos agrees. He gets the “work-life balance question” all the time, and he has said, “I know that if I am energized at work, happy at work, that makes me better at home. And if I’m happy at home, that makes me a better worker.” Life is a circle, not a scale.
