So much is written about work/life balance as the boundaries between work and play become more blurred each day.
I’m reading a very interesting book at the moment which focuses on how extremely busy people make their lives work; how despite immense claims on their time, they manage to be in control of their lives, be free from stress and most importantly, enjoy quality time for those things that are important to them.
In her book ‘Upgrade’ the author Rana Florida puts forward seven key prinicples for leading a successful life which I would like to share with you.
- Envision your future. Getting clear on where you want to go in life and taking time to envision your desired situation is a great motivator. Successful people are persistent and clear in their goals, never doubting that they will achieve what they are envisioning.
- Find your passion. When you are happy in your work it really doesn’t seem like work, it’s just what you spend your time doing. At the end of the day we all want to be happy and there’s no greater gift than finding work that fulfills you and adds to your happiness.
- Get creative. We live in a fast changing world where new ideas that get converted into products and services crop up every minute. When we release our inner creativity in pursuit of something that we are interested in and means something to us, time stops, we are in the flow, we seem to be completely aligned with something greater than ourselves. This is a powerful and empowering feeling that inevitably overspills into the rest of our life, positively influencing our behaviour and interaction with others
- Protect your time. Lost time can never be recovered, time is much more important than money. Successful people realise this and protect their time fiercely in order to enjoy what is valuable to them.
- Collaborate. The majority of us now work in what has been termed the ‘knowledge economy’ where we are each becoming more specialist in a specific knowledge area. But it’s impossible to know everything even in one’s area of expertise. However, by adopting an abundance mentality of sharing, believing that collaborating and sharing our knowledge leads to even greater knowledge, we can become more successful and achieve greater things than perhaps we would have been able to do individually.
- Take risks. If we don’t take risks we can’t know what would have worked and what wouldn’t. Everything we want is at the other side of our comfort zone and getting to that side gives us an immense feeling of progress and accomplishment.
- Embrace failure. Failure is just a word, but unfortunately it’s a word with negative connotations that can ultimately affect our self esteem. It’s more constructive to reframe the situation and instead of using the word ‘failure’ use the word ‘result’. It’s from the results that we obtain that don’t turn out as expected that we learn how to do things better next time. So give yourself permission to ‘fail as much as necessary to allow you to move forward in new directions. An experience that gives a result labelled ‘failure’ is just a way of telling you that a different way is needed.
For more details on this approach to life check out the book ‘Upgrade’ –
http://www.mcgraw-hill.com.sg/html/9780071827218.html
