Is work-life balance real?

Several months ago, social media was hyped with discussions about work-life balance. I also follow the discussion.

From these tweets, many people don’t believe that work-life balance can happen. Some also think that work-life balance is a myth.

It’s understandable if the crowd leads to an opinion that says that work-life balance is not real because all the crowds are mostly echoed by entrepreneurs, influencers, content creators, and other people who have a lot of followers on social media. They speak from their perspective.

Work-life balance from the perspective of an employee or a mediocre isn’t heard, because they’re not somebody on the internet. Their followers on social media are not as many as entrepreneurs or influencers.

But of course, I understand that nowadays the boundaries between work and life are very blurry. It could be when we work, we take time to enjoy life by scrolling Instagram, Tiktok, or online shopping. It could also be when we’re at the beach, we take the time to open work emails or Slack.

As an entrepreneur, work-life balance is not a nine-to-five job. The entrepreneur lives with a sense of crisis in his mind. It could be when he is on vacation, he is still thinking about his work. But that doesn’t mean he’s not in balance.

As a blue-collar worker, nine-to-five jobs could be a form of work-life balance. There are even some places that enforce three-shift work. If he gets the third shift, then work will be done at night, while life will be done in the morning.

For me, work-life balance is putting things in their proper proportions. With the flexibility of my job, work-life balance can’t be achieved with nine-to-five behavior. There are times when I work in the morning, then in the afternoon I exercise, then I go back to work again in the evening. Sometimes I work five hours a day, other times I work twelve hours a day. My job doesn’t require how many hours a day I have to spend. As long as the work I do is done well, then they don’t care how many hours I spend.

Work-life balance is something personal. Everyone with each profession can have their own way to balance work and life.

Whatever our job is, find a way to find your own balance.

This article is part of the 30 Day Writing Challenge. I’ll challenge myself to write whatever comes to mind.