I went to a craft fair at the weekend, and my partner bought a beautifully made leather wallet. I asked the stall holder whether he had a shop. He said he likes to work for half the year and then travel for half the year. And he has been doing this for over 30 years. So, no, he did not have a shop because it would tie him down too much.
I was fascinated and asked where he was next going to visit. He said “ This will pay for the trip to Cuba”. (Although not the proceeds of one single wallet!).
So his work is paying for his lifestyle. Six months of work, and six months of holiday seems like a very good work life balance!
Do you think that your work is in fact your life?
An alternative viewpoint is that your version of work life balance is completely different because you love your work so much it is in fact your life.
Some people want to retire as soon as possible, while others (usually entrepreneurs or artists) cannot imagine that they will ever stop working. Work is something that fascinates endlessly and they would not feel alive if they were not doing the work.
Think of Picasso or Monet painting into old age and even when eyesight was going. When Matisse could no longer paint he cut out shapes in paper with big scissors and found a whole new art form.
Never mix Work and Pleasure
The old adage was that work and pleasure were two completely different things. If you had back-breaking work in a factory, or soul-less office then you probably did keep the two apart. Plenty of people do live for the weekends.
But if we work for ourselves we have different options. We can define our own hours, mix with the people we enjoy being with and do leisure activities which have a work context. I do not play golf but there are a lot of people who play golf every Friday afternoon and get business as well. It can be an authentic form of networking to meet others doing something you love doing and others discover naturally that you have what they need.
Or if you are more attracted to a digital lifestyle the idea is that you lie under a palm tree on a white sandy beach while money pours into your bank account. Basically the plan is that you can have the lifestyle you want (palm tree beach) once you have bought the course to tell you how to do it.
Work and Life might not be useful labels for small businesses
Maybe work being defined as the thing we are paid for, and Life the rest of life where we are not paid but (with luck!) enjoy ourselves is outmoded.
I remember going on a great trip to the US with our four children (and we did some work) and then to Germany for a conference. To be honest being in the plane on my own for the short journey to Frankfurt was extremely rejuvenating compared with the wonderful but exhausting family holiday!
Our work can be the way we express our purpose, and get clear on our identity as well as being paid.
In Sweden they trialled a system where everyone was paid enough to live. If you were paid enough to live would you actually want to do your “Work” because you love it?
It is time for those of us who have small businesses to redefine Work and Life and pay attention to what we do outside strict “working hours. ” It could be that how we choose to fill our “free” time has more common threads with our work than we had imagined.
So often when working with clients we help them see or experience things in a new way. It could be time for us to redefine what Life and Work mean for us.