Admit it, you work hard. We all do! In our industry hard work is rewarded. It’s human nature to want to be rewarded and the quicker the reward, the more we choose to do certain activities.
In life we want to feel adequate, respected, strong, loved, and successful. When we receive a quick pat on the back, a good grade, or even likes on our social media accounts, it becomes easy to convince ourselves that working harder is what we need to do to fill those areas where we feel we are lacking.
We all know that being healthy and having a work life balance is important, but many times we focus too much on what we SHOULD DO and not on why we should do it.
Below are some “Selfish Reasons to Work on Your Health and Work Life Balance”
Higher Productivity
Productivity in work is SOOO IMPORTANT. As an independent appraiser, adjuster, or business owner, focused time equals money making time. When an engine of a vehicle is taken care of, has the right fluid levels, and is well maintained, it will achieve a higher horsepower (HP) than an engine in neglect. You are no different. You can achieve HP (higher productivity) if you are well maintained. I don’t know many appraisers who wouldn’t take a higher level of productivity.
Increased ROI
We already discussed this in the previous point, but it’s true. When you have balance in your life, you can achieve a higher level of earning potential. We invest our lives into our businesses and this investment has a cost and it needs to be measured. Monetary investments into a stock, bond, or project prompts the question, What is the ROI? (return on investment).
Why should we do any less with our time investments? You will achieve a higher ROI if you balance how much you are investing your time and have a healthy, focused intensity the hours you are working.
Happiness
Happiness comes from, according to a recent survey of 1980 Harvard Graduates,
“Choosing to be happy with whatever you do, strengthening your closest relationships and taking care of yourself physically, financially and emotionally.”
In the survey 44% of those that rated themselves as extremely happy said they are at peace with their work-life balance versus only 13% of the others surveyed. If you can fight to find your work life balance, you may experience more happiness than ever before. Anyone not wanting to experience a happier life can happily close this article and resume reading news articles for your daily dose of depression.
Better Health
“Stress creates havoc in the human body, leads to depression, kills creativity, isolates people when they most need social connections and slowly destroys one’s self-esteem.”
The above is a quote from an article at the Laughter Online University, but I wish I had first said it myself.
Stress is a serious threat to your health and balance on all levels. Like having an invisible gorilla beating on you all the time, stress wears your body, mind, and spirit down. Ohio University and countless other impressive organizations believe that having a work life balance will decrease your stress significantly. I’m not going to disagree with them.
In my life when “work” or a situation gets to be too much, I’ve found that it’s best to walk away from it. I come back pleasantly surprised that most of the problem was in my own mind.
This is all fantastic, but how….. how do we set out to achieve better health and a better work life balance? I’ll leave you with some quick tips to get you started.
Get a Hobby
Choose a hobby or activity that is different from your daily grind. If you do physical work all week long find something less physical than your job as your hobby. Focus on your mental and artistic side. This will help balance out your week. If you are doing mind work all week look to an activity that involves your body more than your mind.
Maintain a Healthy Diet
This helps more than I can explain here. If you suffer from mental fog or fatigue making a dietary shift can greatly impact your life.
Now do not go crazy here, I’m not saying to go and make yourself miserable by being the food police, just be conscious of what’s going into your body. If you are a road warrior, like most of us in the business, choosing to stop at a grocery store to grab fruit for breakfast instead of the McGriddle, the all in one salad for lunch verses the Whopper and fries, and water instead of soda can dramatically shift your health to a more balanced state.
Have Goals
Many times when individuals work too much it is because they are feeling either depressed, aimless, or like they’re just going through the motions. Why? It’s because they’re lacking general direction or the problems they face feel so large that they feel it is impossible to overcome without constant motion. This is where having a plan with realistic goals can save the day.
If you know where you want to go and have a plan to get there, each day is just a step in that plan. You don’t have to get to the end destination tomorrow, you can’t. Trust your plan and walk out the process.
Set Boundaries
As independent appraisers you must set boundaries to your work. You need space that work cannot touch. From the beginning of time people have chosen a day to rest. In nature, if you work a field for too long it quits providing the nutrients for a healthy crop, you also must rest. Having boundaries and time set aside for you, your loved ones, and for your mind to decompress will allow you to have perspective which helps reduce stress.
With that reduced stress you will return to your work with more energy and focus than if you had continued to push on and not rest.
Learn how to turn off your phone, close the laptop and walk away. Files are important, deadlines are critical, statuses are needed, but without people there wouldn’t be deadlines, files, and statuses. You are a person, treat yourself like it.
Your situations, life, and body are unique. Achieving a balance for you is different than for me. Try some of these suggestions, search the internet for more, but never stop fighting for balance in your life. You are worth it.