What’s the right balance between work and non-work time? The traditional 9-5 has slowly disappeared with the emails and zoom and texting going far beyond traditional business hours. We asked members of our community to share with us how they think about work-life balance.
Maribel Lopez | Wedding/Family Photographer
When it comes to balance in my world it took me a while to figure it out. Not only do I run my own photography business but I am also a full time elementary school teacher and the most important job; a mom to two beautiful kids. I guess you could say I wear a lot of hats. When I first started balancing all of this, it was a lot of pressure. Working Monday-Friday at the school, shooting weddings / family sessions on the weekends and then trying to find the time to edit and deliver images. I never stopped! I would work from sunrise to sunset. I barley had enough “me time” let alone time to spend with my husband and kids. I knew things had to change. This is where balance came into play. Since being a teacher means that I usually leave work at 3pm I wanted to establish “Business hours” for my photography. Read more>>
Meet Whitney Oakes | CEO
Having a work life balance has not always come easy for me. About one and a half years ago, I was going through a very stressful time and I was working nonstop and my body crashed; something inside of me told me to take a vacation, and I did just that only days later. And a day after arriving at a beach villa in Tulum, and my body was happy and thriving once again. This was a big learning experience for me! Luckily, all of the services at Reset are a form of my self care. And in my 20’s, I went to grad school for counseling psychology and one of the things that was drilled into my head was self care, self care, self care. I find that doing things every day, whether it’s a 20 minute sauna or an early morning run before Miami wakes up literally feeds my soul and gives me energy; and in doing these things at a time of day where I will not be interrupted by work emails and phone calls is also extremely important. Read more>>
Dr. Melanie S. Hussain | Style Therapist & Mental Health Professional
This is such a great question because so often everyone is asking about balance and how to find it. It is like this goal to attain and if you don’t have everything balanced your life is in disarray. This is untrue and unfair. I hear this from my friends and clients. I always try to reframe it for them and shift their perspective when it comes to balance. I want to take that pressure off from them and even myself. Truthfully, I don’t always use the word, only when it comes to physical fitness. It may sound strange, but if I am doing yoga or lifting weights, the word balance is correlated to maintaining stability and poise. This makes more sense to me when we talk about it in terms of exercise than it does for a lifestyle. I used to believe I had to have it all together- my life, my relationships, my career, even my feelings. But as I have shifted, mentally and emotionally, I learned that having everything in balance isn’t going to happen. And that’s okay. Read more>>
Craig Avera | Founder and Owner
Balance, I’ve learned, is a very fluid and relative term. It is an excellent lifestyle goal to strive for under normal circumstances. Entrepreneurship is anything but normal. I have seen plenty of businesses fail, not because the idea was bad, but due to poor execution, lack of resources or adaptability, and the lack of willingness to do whatever it takes to succeed. In order to be great, you cannot have balance. Simple as that. I accepted that fact as soon as the pursuit to create Cali Coffee became a reality, and embraced it. This applies not just to the entrepreneur, but for anyone in any career path or any skill. Think about all the great icons: Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali, Steve Jobs. All the great ones start with an amazing skill set, and then on top of that, disregard the need or want for a balanced lifestyle, and instead go all in to hone and perfect their craft. That is simply what’s necessary in order to be truly successful. Success is another relative term, but that’s another matter. Read more>>
Emily Ghosh Harris | Intuitive Business Coach, Podcast Host & Founder of Soul Media
There was a point in my life where I was really able to burn the candle on both ends and it wasn’t unusual for me to sleep 4-5 hours a night. Hard work was ingrained in me by my father who was an immigrant from Calcutta, India. He moved to the United States for grad school with little resources and went on to build an amazing career as a structural engineer. I always admired his focus and determination and those were two qualities that helped me to get started on the journey of being an entrepreneur. The challenge was that when I first started my own business, I didn’t realize it was a marathon and not a sprint. Throughout the first year, I pretty much worked around the clock: my computer and I were inseparable. But gradually, I came to realize the importance of balance. I started to learn that when I balanced work with other facets of my life, my ability to be creative was enhanced. Read more>>