26 PROFESSIONAL WOMANS MULTICULTURAL MAGAZINE WWW.PROFESSIONALWOMANMAG.COM
CAREERS
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ou wake up in the morning, have your cup (or three) of coffee, workout, meditate, read your horoscope, take your vitamins, have breakfast, shower, get dressed and ready, review your workday to-do list, drop the kids off at school, feed and walk the dog, get to your office (or in front of your computer), work your tail off for 8, 9, 12 hours - getting and responding to emails and texts, meeting with clients, crafting blogs and social posts, making sales calls, working on projects and putting out the inevitable 'fires' that erupt throughout the day, checking off your ever-growing 'to do' list - run some errands, pick up groceries, get the kids, fix dinner, feed the dog, clean up, check and interact on your personal social accounts, read a chapter of your favorite self-help book, watch a 21-minute episode on Netflix, have intimate time with your significant other and then ATTEMPT to sleep while you go over tomorrow's itinerary in your mind. Is THAT balance? You'll hear some tell you, Take care of yourself irst or you won't be able to take care of others. Others will say, To achieve work-life balance you must and then provide tips, exercises and tools you can use to create this ever-elusive thing called 'balance,' which feels more like a carrot dangling on a string just out of reach than something ACHEIV- ABLE.' We're told to make time to work on our inner selves AND our outer selves. How in the world do you make time? Time is time, dang it! We all have the exact same amount in a day, right? We're told to stop stressing, which actually in and of itself adds to our stress. Go with the flow. Do what makes you happy. Nice sentiments, but the day I just flowed and did things that I TRULY enjoyed, I found that I joyfully accomplished many things just not things I SHOULD have gotten done, causing me to feel anxious and overwhelmed. We're told to eat healthy, exercise, do crosswords, Sudoku, puzzles or word games to keep our minds sharp, meditate to stay grounded and spiritually connected, work hard to make money and be suc- cessful Just like the 50,000 marketing messages that barrage us every single day, we are inundated with so much advice about balance that everything feels so OUT of balance ALL. THE. TIME. At the beginning of each year, I choose my word of the year - could be randomly selected or cherry-picked based on where I am at the end of the previous year. This word will be my focus for 12 months. It's the word that I intend to live by or work
Balance
toward for the next 365 days. Last year's word was Authenticity. Can you guess what this year's is? Yep, BALANCE. I have come to an important, life-changing, transformative revelation: There is no such thing as balance. Now, before those of you who feel as though you have balance in your life or those of you who help others to achieve it get your feathers ruffled, allow me a moment to share and explain how I arrived at this unorthodox realization. I mentioned that the day I just went with the low, I had a great day. I was happy and felt at ease until I realized that I hadn't accomplished some tasks that really needed to be done resulting in anxiety and overwhelm. After that, I decided to get what needed to be done out of the way FIRST and THEN go with the flow. Well, my friends, THAT didn't work either. EVERYTHING needed to be done (in my mind), leaving no time to flow with anything I wanted to do and then THAT stressed me out. And that's when I realized what balance for me really is. It's quite simple really. Balance is NOT a thing to be strived for. Balance is a no strife state of being. I'm not saying don't go after what you want and work to accomplish your goals and dreams. Of course, you should strive for that! But if you are striving for balance, you will never achieve it. You'll always be chasing something that is intrin- sically uncatchable. Why? Because balance isn't following a specific division of time wherein you work at your job or business 50 percent of the time and live the other half of the time. For some, work IS their balance. Spending the bulk of their time be- ing productive, accomplishing projects, fulfilling the needs of their clients or bosses is what jazzes them. For others, spending quality time with family and friends, making memories and having adventures and new experiences is what puts a lilt in their step and a smile on their face. And in reading that, you just mentally said, YES! to BOTH. You see, if you ask someone to define balance, the majority of people will tell you that it's being happy at work AND enjoying time at play. However, how that time is distributed is UNIQUE to each individualand the key is to have both. Work is a part of life and life is a part of work. You'll find YOUR balance when you realize that you are at peace with that fact. You CHOOSE your balance. When you are happy with your choices and content in all things, you have your no strife state of being. You have YOUR balance.
Shonna Jordan is the owner of Jordan & Jordan Marketing, a North San Diego County-based marketing agency, which in addition to brand development, marketing messaging and marketing materials development for small businesses, also produces two annual events: The Business Women's Mega Mixer and The Business Explosion. Ms. Jordan writes, speaks and trains on various marketing and business-related topics, owns and operates the women's networking organi- zation, Good Ol' Gals Business Connections, provides busi- ness development and marketing services for an exclusive water rescue device, is a partner in a microgreens business, writes romance under a pen name and has an onscreen personality YouTube channel in the works.
The Ever-elusive Thing We Call
By Shonna Jordan Owner of Jordan & Jordan Marketing
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