Eniola Olaosebikan: You Must Never Neglect Work-Life Balance

What happens when you love a thing and you do it too much? Abuse sets in, as well as discomfort. No matter how much we love doing a thing, there are usually limits to it, else our system begins to refuse it. It is what happens when we eat too much or drink too much.

Life was created to be lived out in times and in seasons. The wisest man who ever lived at some point- King Solomon once reiterated this fact when he said – “There is a season (a time appointed) for everything and a time for every delight and event or purpose under heaven- A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted…a time to throw away stones and a time to gather stones…a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing…” But sometimes with the way we live our lives, we make it seem as if there is time for only one thing. As though when we sleep, we should never wake up and when we wake up, we should never sleep. Balance is one thing that makes things work well and in order.

Inasmuch as there are many ways to gain momentum in life, I would like to focus on one thing- the force of work and play.

It took me quite a while to get to this point of realization. I have always been a ‘work work’ person, never really taking out time to relax. As a matter of fact, I never realized I needed play until some points in my life I met some friends. They exposed me to fun in a way I never knew existed. We never did much, but the little we did was all I needed to get refreshed and get back to work in a much lighter and better way. They also made me realize what was fun to me, because in actual fact, unconsciously, I must have searched for fun at some points and given up because people’s idea of fun was never really fun to me.

Those times I went out to have fun with my friends, I usually came back bustling with more energy and the feeling of being free. I no longer felt cranky, neither did I pursue work till I no longer had the pleasure to do so.
I never knew I was bored and my soul was yearning for a real break all along. I just kept heaving work on work, goals upon goals, deadlines upon deadlines on my ‘poor’ soul and even times I managed to take little breaks, they were usually casual and so not enjoyable; as a result, they never produced required results.

We sometimes need to actively disengage our minds from their various activities so as to consciously pursue fun and as a result, gain more strength and energy to continue our life’s journey. Being overly serious can lead to boredom and rigidness, and as a result, a less productive mind. To fulfil our life’s assignment, we need all we can, fun inclusive. It’s not advisable to live our lives devoid of fun and needed breaks all because of a vision pursued. Sometimes we need to slow down and to a moral extent, let ourselves go. Sometimes we need to go to a place of no rule (especially for people used to rules) and just let ourselves be for once. Laugh out with friends, crack silly jokes and sometimes reminisce on old times. I believe we don’t need to be high up every time in the name of pursuing our vision.  Availing ourselves avenues to consciously calm down/relax per time infuses inner strength and energy to pursue our other goals further.

To be effective in life and with our vision, we have to find the time to strike a balance between our work life and our play life. If need be, we can have friends that are basically for fun. I guess one of the mistakes I made early in life was striving to have friends we had almost everything in common and trying to fit every friend I met through the same ‘hole’ but then, by doing that to an extent I got myself people all like me such that we in the totality of ourselves brought little or no spice (variety) to the table save for the basic things we had in common.  It is advisable to give ourselves the room to have friends similar to us in some ways, and also friends dissimilar to us in other ways so their difference can be our attraction, and the ground on which our relationship blossoms on healthy, moral and legal grounds.

So in essence, if you are someone like me (a ‘visionholic’), this year, you might want to take things slow. Take time out to relax. Go to the pool side, hang out with friends and not be all ‘work work work’. Some people even when they are relaxing, they are relaxing with work (I used to be in that category), but then, a look at history, even God Himself rested on the seventh day. There was a law of rest called the Sabbath day because God saw the need to rest between goals so as to rejuvenate our lives and service our purpose. You simply gather momentum in life by taking a break when you should, so you can be as free as a bird to fly high with your dreams.

In all, work is good and it’s healthy for the soul as well as fundamental to living a great life, but we must know per time when too much is too much and step back for a break. It took me a while to learn this, and it’s one factor I’m putting in place this year.

Try not to be Jack- Jack does not have a balanced life- he is either all work and no play or all play and no work. Depending on your state of mind, it might be too early to take a break being the beginning of the year, but when the need comes, never forget to honor it deliberately, lest work in itself becomes tiring and your vision/goals for the year suffers various setbacks.

Photo Credit: Dreamstime