Over the past years, the phrase Work life balance has been very prominent in the media. Somehow I found it very hard to understand this phrase and now I know why. It is a thing of perspective. If you live within a culture where “work” is equal to a “pay the bill job” and/or considered an “out of actual life” experience, then yes work life balance becomes a topic. For many, the fact is that they close from their job where there is hardly time to enjoy life and then step into their life seeking ways to enjoy the hours left in the day. This was me and it is exhausting! Check out my video where I explain a bit of this – work life balance video on our Youtube channel.
Work life balance vs. life balance
From my perspective today, I believe if you spend an average of 5 to 8 hours on work or even more for some, then those hours are an active part of one’s life. You cannot separate it out of life and then try to balance it with life. As African entrepreneurs you have to treat your work, your business, your engagement as part of the life in which you exist in its wholeness. If we begin to see it from this perspective, it might be a lot easier to develop a balance within itself – life.
Living to thrive holistically – life balance.
I hope you get what I attempt to explain. Life in itself has to be treated as a wholesome experience. Working is part of an entrepreneur’s life. Some people experience just “work” when there is more to our lives than that. Sometimes it is because one has to survive, but life is about thriving. Creating a holistic life is a process and bear in mind that the process is the goal. Here are some simple tips I embraced to create a holistic life balance. Firstly as explained above, I needed to develop a new perspective and approach to life itself. Living to thrive holistically. I saw my work as an integral part of the whole, which is life. Do you feel that way about your work?
Awareness of self as a tool to life balance
How do you feel about your work? I could only integrate activities into the whole that I actually enjoyed doing or that were a necessity to do in order to do those things I enjoyed doing. This meant I had to be aware of 2 things – what I enjoyed and what was necessary! “Awareness of self” is my number 2 tip. Even till date, I am constantly questioning myself about why I do what I do – is it that I enjoy it or is it necessary. If My answer does not lye on either side, I seriously have to pause! Are you aware about the things you enjoy and the things you have to do to build the ones you enjoy?
Rest & recover your body, mind and soul
My number 3 step is very practical. We all have the same 24 hours in a day. So if you are supposed to spend a significant part of it recovering through rest and sleep, then rest and sleep is key to having a balanced life, right? This was an aspect I totally ignored in my twenties when it was all about work life balance. You get to feel it after your late thirties or even earlier. I hope you do not though! Every human needs recovery in the form of sleep and rest. Rest can come in the form of meditation, a walk, spirituality or any way you can rest your body, mind and soul, while integrating “sleep” as part of it. So there is so much to life balance which you cannot approach with simple work life balance!
Our body needs sleep to enjoy a state of balance. Scientists have proof of the effect of health and nourishing sleep. Here is a good article that can enlighten you – The Power of Sleep by Brian St. Pierre, MS, R, director of nutrition at the Precision Nutrition institute in Canada. This last tip is very crucial to all others. How do you want to spend the rest of your life? Before we dive into the hundreds of things you could do, one very important thing is to consider those things that you cannot separate from life like nutrition.
2 months towards a balanced life.
I will dedicate a full blog series to this because I struggled with weight balance physically for a long time. You see, I said “weight balance”, not losing weight or being overweight. It is also a thing of approach! Not everyone has to lose weight. Sometimes, you might need to gain weight. Often you might need to have the right weight for your body which would encompass more muscle, water, better nutrients and so on. So it depends. In my case, it was so bad that the doctors diagnosed me pre-diabetic and I felt very tired all the time. It took a 2-months kur using nutrition as the core of my life balance journey to reverse pre-diabetics, improve my cognitive ability and gain consistent energy. For entrepreneurs cognitive ability, energy and physical health is key! So actually, the so-called work life balance was a life balance journey.
Fuel for your soul!
Nutrition is fuel to our physical body, our mind and our soul. So if you are not aware about the kind of fuel you tank, well then, let’s not get surprised about the state of our body, mind and soul. This does not mean that there are no severe health conditions that affect these states, but it is the exception, believe me and thanks to medical evolvement, there are also solutions in many cases.
I felt it was extremely helpful to understand the impact of nutrition on one’s fitness and state of mind. This led me to study, practice and get a certificate in Nutrition for health and fitness. So stay ready to get some dose of practical things you can do to stay fit. In upcoming blogs, I will expand on how nutrition can increase your success as an entrepreneur and make my one-week mumpreneur nutrition-fit plan available for download soon. Here is a blog on how beauty is important for entrepreneurs.
I really want us to start this conversation about our health as African entrepreneurs. I am inviting you to embrace a holistic approach instead of getting carried away with a narrative of work life balance. You have just one life to balance. Be aware about the work activities that make you blossom and those that are necessities to achieve the things that makes you happy. Consider rest and recovery as an integral part of your life. Become open to nutrition that can actually fuel to your body, mind and soul towards achieving that business you desire. If you liked this blog and want to know how nutrition can increase your success as an entrepreneur or when my one-week mumpreneur nutrition-fit plan is available, remember to subscribe to our health newsletter here. Thank you so much for reading to the end, connect on Instagram too. Love ya!
Cheers,
Joana
Nice article!👍