So today I’ve decided to explain to you why I think work/life balance is a crock. I apologize if this sounds defensive but I’m feeling like maybe it’s an opportunity to teach people that happiness is not based on how much “life” you have in proportion to how much you “work”. The lesson I’ve learned is when work is fun and exciting and fulfilling, it’s part of life. It’s not something you have to do to HAVE a life.
To make my point, I think you need to see how much time I spend goofing off. Probably 80% of these items are during the week, as Saturdays are reserved for spending time with my mom and Sunday mornings are sacred. I do like to get ready for the week by working on Sundays, like I am now. So here are some stats about my life in 2011 – since I put just about everything on my calendar it wasn’t too hard to add up.
- Days spent skiing in the Rocky Mountains – 37
- Miles run – I’d say about 300
- Miles biked – Only about 100, and I only did that to train for the duathlon I did in August
- Lunches with girlfriends during the week – 64 (I didn’t count coffees there were more of those too)
- Hours spent x-country skiing – 62 (It might be more, it was a snowy year in Minnesota)
- Spa appointments – 14 (including the two I have scheduled before the end of the year
