How To Achieve Work-Life Balance
- Creating a Life Map

by Mark Hollingworth

Is work-life balance an elusive golden chalice or is it something that is achievable? As business professionals we often judge our development and growth by our advancement at work. This article takes excerpts from Mark Hollingworth's paper Resolving the dilemma of work-life balance: developing Life-Maps published in the Ivey Business Journal Online in which he discusses "Life Maps" as a way to resolve the challenge of work-life balance.

According to Hollingworth, in order to achieve happiness we need to plan our lives in a way that we integrate work, family and community commitments holistically. To do this we need to create a "Life Map" that is based on life satisfaction and happiness objectives. Similar to a corporate vision and mission, a "Life Map" gives us strategies to meet these objectives. When creating objectives for our life map we need to focus on the different dimensions and determine/define the personal success and happiness objectives that will give us greater life satisfaction. The objectives are set on several dimensions and non-work related goals are placed on an equal footing with career ambitions. The goal of the Life-Map is to rank on a scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high) where you are on the various dimensions and where you would like to be. Once you identify where there are gaps you then need to create a strategy to fill in those gaps. "When you place both dimensions on equal footing you will then understand on a rational level the changes you need to make in your work and personal life that will allow you to make better, more informed career and life decisions".

The key dimensions of the "Life Map" are categorized as the four Ls: Live (financial management), love (strengthened relationships), learning (new learnings) and legacy.

Live

Hollingworth asks: "How much do you really need to earn to put a roof over your head, food on your table and kids through school?" He further explains, "[f]inancial independence does not mean retiring tomorrow. It means no longer being vulnerable to the day-to-day stress and anxiety caused by living beyond your means and being driven by the insatiable urge for "more." Once you have clearly established your Life Satisfaction Objectives you will probably realize that it doesn't necessarily require a lot, or even, more money to achieve your goals." Having a better relationship with your spouse, setting time aside for your parents, or spending less time watching television does not require more money.

However, he further stresses "to gain financial independence you need to face up to the financial issues that you would probably rather avoid and be ready to make some real changes in your spending habits." Compare your "ideal" financial habits with the ones you currently have to identify what habits "fit" and "don't fit" into your plan. "When you know what you need to do to be successful and happy, you will understand when you are spending money on items or activities that are not taking you towards your goals?" Establishing your financial objectives will be relatively straightforward - although not necessarily easy to achieve. Old habits die hard but are easier to change when there is a clear reward in doing so."

Love

In regards to love, Hollingworth asks you to consider "[w]hat type of social environments you need to work and live in to be content? Are your relationships helping you achieve your Life Satisfaction Objectives or are they hurting you?" He suggests that "once you have identified any gaps between the desired and actual states, you need to ask yourself a few questions: What is the cause of the gap? Who are your VIPs? What steps are you willing to take now to deal with these situations? You must be willing to say "yes" to some things and "no" to others. The same goes for building and managing "Win-Win" relationships. The challenge is to identify the 4-6 Relationship Objectives you need to establish to build "win-win" relationships that will allow you to move towards your "Life Satisfaction" objectives."

He further states however, "if you have an objective such as: "spend more time with aging parents it is too qualitative and vague to force a real change in behaviour. You need to establish some targets in order to motivate you and to measure whether you are achieving your objectives". For example you could measure your success by how many times you visit your parents or by the number of times you call them per month, etc.

Learning

The learning aspect of Hollingworth's Life-Map "sets objectives in terms of the learning that will be required to allow you to achieve all your personal objectives, professional or otherwise. It also includes activities that give you pleasure and facilitate relaxation." Maybe you need to learn how to swim or would like to learn a new language in order to align yourself with your life satisfaction objectives? Learning can also be work-related if it advances you understanding of a subject that interests you.

Legacy

What do we want to create and leave for others? For some it might be a fruitful business that our children can take over; for others it might be the positive impact we have through a philanthropic endeavour we pursue.

Once you have established the strategies needed for life satisfaction, "the task is to complete your "Life-Map" such that your relationships, spending habits, activities and learning all contribute to the attainment of your vision". Hollingworth points out that by doing this exercise you will discover why you have been "experiencing stress trying to balance work and non-work related objectives. It may be because you have been measuring your success using the wrong metrics and prioritizing in the wrong areas or that society's indicators for measuring your success do not match your own personal definition".

The challenges of preparing and using Life-Maps

1. Learning more about yourself and finding the right path is not easy and making mistakes is an integral part of any learning process. It will take resolve to see the difficult periods through.
2. You may feel some withdrawal symptoms because achieving more balance will require you to give some things up. These feelings are natural and unsettling but will pass.
3. You may feel pressure to conform by friends, family and peers who may question your ambition and motives. Advertisements, films and TV programs will also challenge you to return to the "flock."

Hollingworth states: "[m]any people pass through their lives never questioning who they are and what they want to achieve." By preparing a Life-Map, you will have to ask yourself some hard questions and face certain realities if you want to achieve true balance.

Mark Hollingworth is a lecturer at McGill University, and the president of the consulting firm 5i Strategic Affairs. He is the author of Growing People, Growing Companies (2002).