Elenita G. Cuenca

WP Blog Posted 12/03/2021 Why work-life balance is important? Work-life balance? is it familiar to us? A balanced life can be very fulfilling and it can be done with utmost discipline. Prioritizing family, work and self is at times hard, we tend to pay attention to ourselves when we feel sick and burned out. Many children are dreaming of a happy family but the luxury of life is sacrificed at the expense of parents who worked abroad or longer hours in the office or business. Work-life balance is easy for some especially those from middle-class families but not for the poor ones. Poor parents need to work longer and farther to supply family needs. Some say life is what we make it. We have to carefully plan the life we dreamed of by putting all the most important things first. For others, health is a priority, for some, money is a priority. It depends on a person’s agenda for life. Many couples started life dreaming of having a happy family, laughing around, and enjoying life together. But as soon as the family provider started canceling dinner dates because he has more work to do, the family is losing the bond that keeps them together. Spending so much time at work is a person’s initiative especially if he is trading time for money, more money needs more time. If more time is used for working or in business, generally it cuts so much of the spheres of life and there’s no more work-life balance. Stress is building up and it will eventually be manifested in various forms like diseases, disorders, fatigue, and relationships that fall apart. Some say life is what we make it. We have to carefully plan the life we dreamed of by putting all the most important things first. For others, health is a priority, for some, money is a priority. It depends on a person’s agenda for life. Many couples started life dreaming of having a happy family, laughing around, and enjoying life together. But as soon as the family provider started canceling dinner dates because he has more work to do, the family is losing the bond that keeps them together. Spending so much time at work is a person’s initiative especially if he is trading time for money, more money needs more time. If more time is used for working or in business, generally it cuts so much of the spheres of life and there’s no more work-life balance. Stress is building up and it will eventually be manifested in various forms like diseases, disorders, fatigue, and relationships that fall apart. So basically, when things are no longer working well in the family, we soon realized that the spouse and children are no longer happy and start finding ways to recreate and break monotonous life. For many people, to have a stable family, they think, they need more money. Very few have realized that for children to grow better, they must have a family support system that spare time for them every time they need the presence of parents or even one of them. The aging parents live longer within the bounds of close family circles. So how can we make a work-life balance? Is there a formula? Life’s imaginary and powerful quadrants must be respected so that work-life balance can be put into place. My quadrants look like this image below: QUADRANTS OF LIFE The image represents how a person must conduct his life. He must consider four areas and their direct connection with each other. Work is for the family's needs and after that the friends, so the self can be in good shape to work again. Each sphere is bounded and must be respected to attain a work-life balance. WORK FAMILY This is sphere is intended for anything but work and work-related activities. No work must be done at home at the expense of the family. Just as you cannot do your laundry in the office. You should not bring homework or assignments. Phone calls related to work must be regulated especially if children are enjoying the presence of the parents. It’s a different story if the parents work from home. If you are single, work may also be your life unless you put some boundaries. This sphere is intended for all family related duties and activities such as bonding moments. It cannot be substituted for anything else. Parents work to raise and provide for family. Children must grow seeing both parents or one at a time because they imbued the children values they need to practice in life. Growing boys must have father figures so he can emulate masculine roles. If you are single and lives alone, this may be used to visit the parents and other relatives. SELF and God FRIENDS This one is intended for a quiet time for yourself. It can also be spent for prayers, going to church, to medical check-ups, trip to a beauty salon for a hair trim, work outs, leisure activity or just learning a new recipe or skill set. If you are single, then you have lots of time for yourself. Working parents must take full advantage of this area to keep monitoring their health and necessary adjustments to keep healthy. If you have to keep raising a healthy family, you must be healthy enough to do that. Friends are considered as support group that can fill in the times when we needed company other than family and work mates. Friends are those that make us completely humans, especially if one lives alone. There are times, we were bothered by some things we cannot discuss with family at first. Most friends remind us of how we used to be and it brings back lots of memories of laughter and stupidity. Friends make the world happier and a bunch of support when needed. So the next time, you think you are having issues of less attention to family members, check these quadrants of life, and bring back the work-life balance to fix relationship issues. Cuenca, Elenita G. 03/12/2021 Source: https://demo.vab.ph/wp-admin/post.php?post=3085&action=edit