Don't Quit Your Job to Find Balance

[news]

[news]

Some people leave their jobs to find better balance and end up right where they started, only sitting at a different desk. You don't have to quit your job to find better balance. In fact, please don't do that. Rather, stay at your job until you find balance. Then quit if you realize your career is not supporting you in living or expressing your values.

Finding balance has very little to do with your career. Balance also has very little to do with the company where you work, or the people with or for whom you work. Balance is about you getting clear on what you need and how you are expressing what you need. Creating balance starts with a choice, an intention to create balance however you define it. Balance is different for each of us. It is not something that any CEO, manager or executive coach can give you or define for you.

Define it for yourself, then make the choice to create it through daily actions. Small actions, simple actions, and subtle repetitive actions that are barely noticeable to others around you. Actions like eating lunch away from your desk, drinking more water, getting enough sleep, setting down your mobile device when someone is talking to you.

Or bigger actions like mapping out your career path, learning new skills, putting energy into a hobby, or volunteering. Importantly, creating balance requires actions like saying what you mean, communicating your boundaries and requesting what you need to create a life of balance.

If you feel so out of balance that you're thinking about leaving your job, stay until you are clear what it is you really need. Ask yourself if what you need is something your company or manager can reasonably provide. It might be that you already have everything you need, and the path to balance is small simple actions each day. No company, manager or person can create balance for you. The choice is yours. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.












More...