by Eric Goudie

Created on: September 02, 2010

Playwrights Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman summed it up in the title of one of their most famous plays – You Can’t Take it With You. When it comes to maintaining a healthy work/life balance that’s really what it all comes down to.

If you’re wondering why it’s important to remember that there is more to life than just work there’s a simple exercise you can do that many people find enlightening – write your own obituary.

If you died today, or tomorrow, or fifty years from now, what would your obituary say? Would it mention that you consistently outperformed your fellow sales associates by over 20% for ten straight quarters? Or that you became the youngest person ever to achieve 10,000 clients at your firm?

It probably wouldn’t. It might mention that you worked for ABC company for a while, then XYZ company for a while, but that’s about it, and even then only if there was room. Most likely your obituary would read much like anyone else’s – one word about how you died (quickly, tragically, mercifully) followed by several lines listing the loved ones who predeceased you and who you left behind.

Your loved ones are the most important thing in your life, and you are the most important thing in theirs. No job is more important than they are.

But what if you’re doing your job to provide for the ones you love? What if you get up every day, forego spending any meaningful time with your family and fall into bed exhausted every night just so that you can keep a roof over their heads? What if it feels like you spend your whole life working, with no time left over for yourself? In these situations it can seem like there is nothing more to life that simply work, and that you’re caught in a hole you’ll never be able to get yourself out of.

There’s no easy solution to this – there’s more to life than simply work but there’s more than one life you have to consider. It’s important you talk to your loved ones about your feelings, rather than keeping them all to yourself, even if you think they don’t want to hear what you have to say. Perhaps your spouse can find a part-time job. Perhaps a willing grandparent can be substituted for professional daycare. Maybe your teenage daughter can get her $120 haircut once every three weeks instead of once every two weeks.

There is no shame in admitting that you’re at the end of your rope. In fact it’s important that you do acknowledge where you’re at and seek help because you’re right – they are depending on you. They are depending on you to provide for them, and they are depending on you to be there for them for a long time to come. Don’t make them write your obituary just because you forgot that there is more to life than work.

Learn more about this author, Eric Goudie.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.