The quest for work/life balance, a myth that continues to be sold to us, is futile. If you think of life as a pie, work is one slice of that pie. Seeking work/life balance is like trying to balance one slice with the whole pie. It doesn’t work.
It’s especially a futile task in an era where work blends in to the rest of life. For many people who are solopreneurs in creative fields, or digital nomads, work integrates into the cracks and crevices of life. This has been true since before the pandemic. The pandemic simply expanded this phenomena to many more people.
In our current era of work from home, the way work weaves into the rest of life and the rest of life weaves into work has become even more apparent. It’s all happening at the same time.
This is reflected also in the changing nature of work. Many of us don’t want to siphon ourselves into a role that we adopt to earn income while hiding away the rest of ourselves. We want to be who we are, rather than be who we need to be to serve a particular outcome.
One of my persistent questions to myself is
How can I bring all facets of myself into my work, to use all the wisdom and experience I’ve accumulated and all parts of who I am to serve my clients?
This is not the quest for work/life balance; it is the quest for integration.
Integrity implies trustworthiness, responsible, and honest. You have integrity if you do what you say and keep your promises. This relates to one of the definitions of integrity, a firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values.
Integrity also means the quality or state of being complete or undivided: Completeness.
This is the the goal of integration.
When we integrate, we find our wholeness. To show up in integrity means to embody your completeness. When you’re in integrity, you’re not looking for anyone else to fill a hole within you, because you don’t have a hole. It means you’re not grasping for love or needing to be needed.
Showing up in integrity means that you honor and embrace all parts of yourself and you bring your full self to every endeavor.
This is infinitely more attainable — and more nourishing — than the futile quest for work/life balance.
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