Most entrepreneurs suffer from feelings of guilt when they don’t achieve what they want or need to. They feel guilty and try to compensate by working even harder. Today’s fast paced lifestyle has created a huge personal sense of responsibility regarding the outcomes of our lives. Few people know how to share this burden of responsibility and tend to carry the burden alone. This results in a vicious cycle of hard work, guilt and more hard work.
Taking time off work for the flu could be viewed as a weakness in the workplace as the habits of working late, long and hard are ingrained in our culture.
The guilt of leaving work late and still feeling as if you have only finished a fraction of what you wanted to accomplish today is self destructive. Changing your perspective about your time is the key to reducing guilt, stress, and getting everything done on time.
Our society needs to develop a specific mindset to enable them to create a balance between work and home life. If not, our wellbeing will continue to be damaged by the current high divorce rates and number of burnt out executives.
The creation of this work/life balance can only be achieved if it becomes your top priority. It is an outcome of working and living a certain way, and requires allocating constant attention to your personal life road map. This lifestyle change will lead to personal victory in many areas of your life, and will have a ripple effect on your circumstances, relationships and finances. Well balanced lives result in activity in various components of our lives.
Adults have three major areas to concentrate on; Personal, Family and Work. These areas dominate at different times, and each involves a set of tasks.
PERSONAL
• Develop a personal identity, values and interests
• Maintain your emotional and physical wellness
• Spend quality time with close friends
FAMILY
• Spend quality time with children, parents and family.
• Develop a family value system
WORK
• Continuous advancement of skills
• Establish yourself as a team player
• Re-evaluate your goals to achieve job satisfaction
People should consciously complete at least one significant activity in all three areas every day.
Many of us feel guilty about certain events, happenings or circumstances in our lives; because our ingrained belief added to the event makes the guilt feel real. Therefore, Beliefs + Action = Guilt
You will only feel guilty if you have a certain belief and take a certain action that makes the belief true.
An example of this is that if you know that you should eat dinner with the family every night, but you work late instead. Your belief that you should have dinner with your family combined with the action of working late produces a feeling of guilt. Guilty feelings often start with “I should” statements, so start using “I would” statements and change your belief system. Alternatively, change your action by going home for dinner and then going back to work.
The work/life balance is an issue for everyone, not just mothers, married people or executives. We all remain deeply concerned about what others might think of us should we address our work/life balance issues. The way to overcome guilt is to change your beliefs and/or your actions. Placing emphasis on your personal, emotional and physical wellness leads to victory in all areas of your life.