Risk Factors of Poor Good Life Balance & How to Overcome It

One factor that is very important to stay happy and healthy in life is to maintain a good work-life balance, i.e. proper prioritization between work and personal life. Unfortunately in today’s Urban India, achieving work-life balance is becoming day by day, tougher. This is happening due to development of personal communicational technology, growing commutation distance between office and home, maintaining expensive lifestyle etc.

For example today an average person working in a corporate company is generally seen constantly attached to his/her work through mobile phones and/or laptop (even before and after office hours), they spend daily 1 to 3 hours while driving to the office, at office, they undergo tremendous competition and work pressure.

So what happens when a person continues to live with a poor work and life balance?   

According to Counsellor Shivani Misri Sadhoo in the absence of good work-life balance, a person starts to burn out. Effects of burnouts may not surface in the initial years, rather in most cases, people enjoy the financial and professional success that career priority lifestyle brings. Over the time burnouts surface with symptoms like migraines, high BP, diabetics, insomnia, spondylitis, marital mess, growing parenting issues, depression, mood swings, heart issues. Losing sense of purpose in work, feeling an aimless and gradual decline in professional performance.

Today Counsellor Shivani shares the three risk factors for burnout that people may not be familiar with and how to overcome them.

1.  Over-focused on Work & Career

Some people over focus on for their work, live to work and generally forget to schedule their time for non-work activities, and see themselves as someone who is highly motivated and persistent, generally, struggle to set aside enough time every day for not to work. As a result, they may neglect to eat healthily, exercise, engage in hobbies, or even meet their friends and family. They are at high risk for burnout.

To bring work-life balance back, develop a strict daily schedule (something they are at good at) but this schedule should include – fixed bedtime, substantial sleeping hours, daily exercise, spending time with kids and time for a weekly family outing, meeting friends and adopt hobbies.

2.  Comparison with others

It is human nature to compare ourselves to our surrounding. This isn’t always a bad thing; it helps us work harder and be better. But if you want more balance, you may benefit from working in an environment where most people are doing work that is very different from yours.

Similarly if y, u let yourself get bothered by comparing with your friends and neighbors on monetary grounds – better car, better watch, better mobile and endless list, then you will be always under a monetary pressure no matter how much you earn.

3.  Job insecurity

Sometimes situations like economic depression, industry slowdown, change in company ownership, pushes a company to reduce its workforce, they intimate there would be job loss and that puts most of its employees to work under constant fear of layoffs. It’s a very tough situation as the person feels helpless and goes through tremendous mental and physical pressure. They start to devote more and more hours to the office.

Though such situations are uncontrollable but one can always keep oneself updated on industrial and economic news that would help them to anticipate such situations in advance and take prior actions, upgrade their skills and avoid falling trap in such situations.