Work/Life Balance Versus Ergolibrium

On the surface, ergolibrium may sound the same as work/life balance, but it isn't. Ergolibrium focus on keeping our work in balance which is only a subset of work / life balance. It's important to maintain a healthy work/life balance, but keeping each aspect of our lives balanced leads to overall balance. Taken as a discrete unit, our work itself should be balanced. I refer to this as the law of the rubber band. People are like rubber bands; if you leave them lying around, they will go limp; if you challenge them, they will perform; if you stretch them too far, they will break.

For a good blog on a key aspect of work/life balance go to the following link http://www.slowleadership.org/blog/?p=344

Ignore the Biggest Naysayer

I just did a quick skim of Guy Kawasaki's blog http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/11/five-lessons-fr.html. One of the tips from that blog is to "Ignore the naysayers". Sadly I'm probably the worst of my own personal naysayers.

Another way to ignore the naysayers is to turn their complaints (or in my case my own apprehensions) into risks that need to be managed. In other words, don't let the concerns sit at the bottom of your stomach, but do something about them.

Some examples ...

Don't know anything about marketing . . . start learning.

Don't feel comfortable commenting in other people's blogs . . . remember the discomfort of having something to say, but then keeping quiet.

Don't like addressing disquieting issues . . . build relationships.

Think about it.

Some Dance

I know an executive who works several states from his wife and travels home every other weekend. He has the financial means and is old enough to retire, but he continues to work. Although he has never blatantly stated so, he has indirectly commented that retiring would require him to live full time with his wife. Although we could probably launch into a lengthy discussion about long distance marriage, I think this brings up an interesting point about perspectives.

You may recall the two lines from the Eagles song (complete lyrics):

Some dance to remember
Some dance to forget

In the exact same circumstance, any two people may have wildly different perspectives. An extreme example is where the death of one person (the ultimate in negative outcome) becomes the joy of another (the funeral director receives business benefit). Based on your personality type, family background, amount of sleep the night before, etc., you may see a situation completely different than the person next to you.

Think about it.

*** First True Post ***

Welcome to my blog. I hope you will find items here that you can use in getting work completed with maximum effectiveness whether you are motivating yourself or others.

My intent is to post at least one blog per month that contains information of real substance. I will highlight these posts by starting and ending the title line with three asterisks. These monthly posts will contain stories, essays, etc. that discuss work balance and motivating people to get work accomplished. These posts should be of real benefit to professional project managers, however, since everyone is an amateur project manager (whether they know it or not), these posts should help everyone. I encourage everyone to post comments so that we can have a true knowledge interchange.

There will be other entries not necessarily related to work balance that will be posted here. These type of posts will not contain the asterisk notation and are primarily for my benefit, however, you are welcome to log comments on these posts.


Regards,

H. Peter Schiller

This blog is under construction. It will soon announce the publishing date of my new book, Ergolibrium: The Power of Balance.