Why Work Life Balance Is a Myth
WHY work life balance is a myth is as important to understand as knowing that it is one. It’s important because the way a topic is framed has a large impact on how we think about it. Framing directs our focus and influences the options we perceive. Most people I speak with consciously know there is no real balance between work and life. However, work life balance is still commonly used to describe a primary challenge facing people. The fundamental issue with the term work life balance isn’t just that such a thing doesn’t exist. It is also the framing of our struggle being one of work life balance and the assumptions on which that framing is based. One assumption is that working has equal priority to living. Another assumption is that they oppose each other.
Thus, the challenge of work life balance is a fictious one based on inhumane assumptions. Naturally, this makes it particularly harmful as this framing prevents seeking true solutions to create healthy and sustainable ways of being in the world.
In this episode of Unlimited, I explore the roots of the work life balance myth and how the myth perpetuates itself as a problem.
Some of what I talk about in this episode includes:
- What is work/life balance
- The history of work/life balance
- The deep problem with the term work/life balance
- A starting place to create what you want in life
- What to expect in Season 3 of Unlimited
LINKS REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE:
Truly Experiences – The History of Work Life Balance
Oxford Bibliographies – Work/Life Balance
Positive Psychology – What Is Work Life Balance
Forbes – The Evolving Definition of Work/Life Balance
The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
Stolen Focus by Johann Hari
How We Show Up by Mia Birdsong
Rest Is Resistance by Tricia Hersey
Unlimited Episode – Dealing With Impostor Syndrome
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