Work Anytime and Anywhere, Not all the time and everywhere
A Normal vs. Manifested Lifestyle
The concept of a "normal" lifestyle is traditionally shaped by cultural norms and societal expectations, guiding our decisions about work, family, and leisure. By default, we get born into this definition and internalize it as a safe and socially acceptable set of regulations, dictating the way in which we manage close to everything in our lives.
However, it doesn’t have to be this way. Once we realize that, through the process of manifestation, we have been responsible for creating every experience in our lives, we see that our lifestyle is subject to our power to manifest.
We might still choose a “normal” lifestyle, but this time around it will be a conscious choice rather than a subconscious subordination to the norms of our environment. Alternatively, we can choose to design our lifestyle in a more independent fashion, founding it on our personal values, purpose, and uniqueness.
The Manifested Lifestyle
A manifested lifestyle is a consciously created design of how we desire to fulfill our life roles, habits, aims, commitments, and actions. This customization underscores that there's no universal model for a manifested lifestyle; it's inherently personal, with endless variations.
One example of such a lifestyle is the flexibility to “work anytime and anywhere, not all the time and everywhere”.
Beyond Work-Life Balance: Releasing the Illusion of Work-Life Separation
The concept of work-life balance carries a noble humanistic message; however, it frequently does more harm than good. This mainly stems from the flawed perspective that work and life are separate entities. Such a division is not only misleading but also contradicts the nature of how we experience our daily lives.
The Dichotomy of Work and Life
In common perception, "life" is viewed as the period where we truly live, encompassing vacations, leisure time, and engagement in passion projects. Many people wish for a life that isn't interrupted by work, fantasizing about a continuous state of "living" free from the need to work for survival.
Conversely, "work" is regarded as an essential, high-effort activity that fills most of our time with obligations, often associated with negative feelings, a victim mentality, or sheer boredom. This negative view transforms work into something diametrically opposed to life, leading to a pervasive sense of dread regarding work as a survival necessity rather than a fulfilling part of life.
The Persistence in “Dying at Work” Mode
Despite the dread regarding work, individuals continue to engage in work primarily because “life” comes to a halt when the money runs out. Financial stability is pivotal for sustaining "life" activities. The cessation of work is often dictated by collective decisions about vacation times, which are seen as opportunities to "come alive" again and reconnect with oneself and loved ones.
Such an outlook suggests that work-life balance, as traditionally conceived, is neither healthy nor realistic in the fast-paced and interconnected world we live in today. This paradigm falsely compartmentalizes work and life into separate, competing areas, contrasting sharply with the intertwined reality of our experiences.
Unattainable Expectations and the Consequences
This division between work and life produces unrealistic expectations and amplifies pressure in the workplace, leading to guilt, stress, and overall dissatisfaction when individuals cannot achieve this supposed balance. The notion of escaping to "life" when "work" becomes overwhelming is an impractical fantasy.
Far from being a hallmark of progressive, human-centric corporate cultures, striving for and promoting work-life balance can stifle creativity, joy, passion, and commitment.
Releasing the Illusion of Separation
A person's life is a single, integrated creative process.
It comprises various roles that are interconnected and cannot be fully understood, managed or appreciated independently. These roles occur simultaneously and have a strong influence on one another, making it impossible to view them in isolation.
Introducing: A Balanced Lifestyle
The traditional model of work-life balance, exemplified by the 9 to 5 workday, is often unsuitable and undesirable for individuals who are committed to serving their organizational and personal purposes.
The depth of passion and dedication present in such purpose-driven work may lead to intense engagement, increasing the risk of burnout. As awareness of this issue grows, more purpose-driven people are seeking a new approach to create and sustain a stable lifestyle.
The Balanced Lifestyle Framework
Rather than striving for work-life balance, a more effective approach is the balanced lifestyle framework. This concept recognizes that all life roles — not just work and life — support, enhance and enrich each other.
The goal is to nurture and value all these roles equally. This approach encourages individuals to find harmony between work and other aspects of life, focusing on integration rather than separation.
The balanced lifestyle framework does not prescribe a one-size-fits-all solution to managing life roles. Instead, it highlights the importance of flexibility, offering a variety of options to suit changing personal needs and preferences. This approach emphasizes aligning professional and personal life with individual values and goals, endorsing a personalized and adaptable way of living and working.
Life Roles: The Building Blocks of a Balanced Lifestyle
In our multifaceted lives, we occupy various "life roles", each having distinct unwritten rules for what constitutes success.
Recognizing and embracing these roles is crucial for expressing our true potential in professional domains. Understanding life roles as interconnected allows for better anticipation of challenges and maintenance of a stable lifestyle.
The Synergy Between Life Roles
Recognizing that our life roles can complement and enhance one another is essential. By cultivating positive habits and mindsets in one role, we induce a ripple effect that benefits our performance in other roles.
For example, the passion, love, and connection expressed in one role will positively influence all other roles. The determination, execution, and focus in another role will build the stamina and energy we need across others.
Redefining Stability Using Life Roles
By actively nurturing all life roles as vital for sustained performance, individuals can transition from reacting to circumstances to intentionally creating and navigating their lifestyles.
This proactive approach enables the development of new habits and a more robust stability, where the investments of energy and resulting achievements in one role positively balance all others. This concept encourages us to focus fully on one role at a time, knowing that this focus benefits our overall lifestyle structure
