Rising in your career and remaining competitive can be a rush-rush proposition. We often feel as if the day has raced by and we didn’t accomplish everything we wanted to. Yet, when you look back at your career, while not every day unfolds as you would hope, many do or at least come close.
Here are 8 signs that your work-life balance is looking good.
1. Sleep
You benefit from a good night’s sleep and awake in the morning rested and alert, at least several times a week. That means you retire at a reasonable hour, that you’re generally healthy, and that you probably eat at least one to two nutritious meals a day.
2. Medication
The variety and amount of medications you take is less now than it was 10 years ago. This means you’ve learned how to take better care of yourself, perhaps organically, using natural foods and remedies, rather than pharmaceuticals. This is the case with several of my friends.
3. You’re a go-to person at work
This means you have expertise, experience or perspective others seek. There are few shortcuts to developing broad-based knowledge, especially in this profession. It takes time. As a result of your reading, analysis and battle-tested capabilities, others look to you for answers. One fine morning, you realize that you have become an essential cog in the machine that makes your organization “go.”
4. Your mix works
In the middle of long projects, it can seem that work is all you do. Yet when you consider the places you’ve been, the vacations you’ve taken and the experiences you’ve had, you realize that your job, your position and your mix of activities on the whole have been pretty good.
5. Your network
You’ve developed a large number of professional acquaintances — a network — along with a handful of good friends. This means you have many resources to call on when you have a question or concern. A large network, whether generated via social media or in person, is a form of wealth. Finding answers to questions and concerns without having to do significant legwork is efficient and effective. The longer you’ve been in the working world, hopefully, the larger your network.
6. You’ve saved
While the U.S. and world economy has been relatively stagnant, you’ve accumulated some personal savings and feel some measure of financial stability. Your mission is to put away even more: Build your savings, add to investment accounts and contribute to your retirement fund.
7. You have friends
You look forward to time spent with loved ones and friends. Friendships are a key element of a happy life. If you have lifelong friends, wonderful. And remember, you have the opportunity to make new friends every day. The new friends you make today might become some of your best friends in the next decade.
8. Satisfaction
You feel intermittent satisfaction with where you are in life. It’s unrealistic to believe that you should perpetually feel satisfied —no one feels satisfied all the time. Intermittent satisfaction is a sign that many things in your life are going well. Revel in that.
::
How does this list work for you? What would you add or subtract? Please use the comment box below to continue the conversation.
Leave a Reply