Rubber Ninja vs Balance

THINK DIFFERENTLY




The topic of life balance came up whist chatting to a fascinating and very wise clinic patient. One of his statements was that it?s quite easy to do well at life if your life has a narrow focus, but to have both a satisfied and balanced life? There?s the battle.

GUILTY. AS. CHARGED.

It got me thinking.

What makes us happy?
What is a balanced life? Are we achieving it? How? What stands in our way?






Dr Martin Seligman, champion of the field of ?Positive Psychology?, noted:

?I realized that my profession was half-baked.
It wasn?t enough for us to nullify disabling conditions
and get to zero. We needed to ask: What are the enabling
conditions that make human beings flourish?
How do we get from zero to plus five??

Major sources of happiness according to a Time magazine Poll published January 17 2005 were:

? Children (77%)
? Friends (76%)
? Helping others (75%)
? Spouse/partner (73%)
? Perceived control over your future (66%)
? Free time (64%)
? Parents (63%)
? Religious/spiritual life & worship (62%)
? Holidays (50%)

How about?.
Being super-wealthy? Nope
Higher-education? Nope
Intelligence? Nope
Youth/Age? Nope

A little surprised?

So, what does it mean to be balanced?
Balance is ?a state reflecting satisfaction or fulfillment in several important domains with little or no negative affect in other domains?.
(Sirgy & Wu, 2009).

It is tightly linked with happiness, or ?Subjective Well-being? and is a part of life satisfaction or ?Quality of Life?.

A balanced, satisfied life consists of 3 components: having, doing and being.

Having: general resources, time, money (meet needs), other
Doing: work, non-work activities (hobbies, entertainment, exercise, social)
Being: connected, satisfied, self (value, purpose, success), balanced, happy, healthy, secure (Mickel, Dallimore & Nelson, 2008)

But what?s wrong with being awesome in one domain rather than being, for example, 'average' across lots of domains?
?putting your eggs in one basket? isn?t a good idea. It?s better to be involved in many areas; should you ever encounter disappointment in one domain, satisfaction from other domains can compensate. Balance contributes to our happiness because of the limit to satisfaction that a single life domain can provide. Instead, we need participation in several domains to satisfy the full range of human needs.
(Sirgy & Wu, 2009)

Do most of us have a balanced life? Nope
Why? Sometimes there just aren?t enough hours in the day, it seems. The most common reason cited is ?not enough time?- the result of a major work-life imbalance.
(Mickel, Dallimore & Nelson, 2008).

What?s the story in Australia?
Talk about timing! Released just today are the results from "Work, Life and Workplace Flexibility: The Australian Work and Life Index 2009" (AWALI).

Some of the results for full-time employees:
? Almost one quarter report that work interferes with external activities
? Almost one third report work reduces time available for family and friends
? One fifth report work interferes with community involvement
? 57% feel rushed and time-pressured
? 67.5% are generally satisfied with work-life balance (65.5% men; 59.9% women).
The satisfaction level for women has significantly declined from 2007-2009.

What to do? What to do??
A good start would be assessing the major source of disatissfaction, work-life balance.

From 1st January 2010, employees have the right to request changes in working arrangements under The Fair Work Act 2009 (?assisting employees to balance their work and family responsibilities by providing for flexible working arrangements? including changes in the hours of work, changes in the patterns of work and changes in the location of work?).

Up until now, just over 20% of employees have made a flexibility request, with just over two-thirds being fully-successful in their request. Changes include job share, compressed work week, flexi-time, work from home, part-time, temporary reduced hours and school term only.

Balance, however, is a complex act, requiring ongoing assessment, evaluation, negotiation, flexibility and accommodation. I have yet to come across a nice step-by-step guide to re-claiming the balance in your life, but should I find anything in my travels I will keep you posted.

I wish I had some straight-forward answers....

How do you balance your life?
What challenges do you face and how do you solve them?


References:

Mickel, E., Dallimore, E., &Nelson, C. (2008). What does the pursuit of a high quality of life entail? Grounding a theoretical model in lived experience, Community, Work & Family, 11, 313-336.

Seligman, M. E. P. (2002). Authentic happiness: Using the new positive psychology to realize your potential for lasting fulfillment. New York: The Free Press.

Sirgy, M. J., & Wu, J. (2009). The Pleasant Life, the Engaged Life, and the Meaningful Life: What about the Balanced Life? Journal of Happiness Studies, 10, 183-196.

Further Interest:

Ultimate Resources, articles, videos, bibliography, from the Positive Psychology Centre

Dr Martin Seligman?s Postive Psychology website

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1999). If we are so rich, why aren?t we happy? American Psychologist, 54, 821?827. Brulde, B. (2007) Happiness theories of the good life. Journal of Happiness Studies, 8, 15-49.