September 2007
Dear Subscribers,
Welcome to the fall edition of my Own Your Life Newsletter!
Labor Day has traditionally signaled the end of summer and the beginning of fall. For most of us, the Holiday also signals the end of vacation and the beginning of school or work. It is a time when we notice that the balance of our lives is again beginning to tip in another direction.
In thinking about this time of year, I’m often reminded of The Three Boxes of Life, the life/work planning classic by Richard Nelson Bolles. In this book, Bolles notes that people often take the view that the course of life is defined by three boxes, with a learning box associated with youth, a working box associated with adulthood, and a play box associated with old age. Life/work planning, he argued, was about creating a plan for balancing all three elements so that learning, work, and play would be integrated into all stages of one’s life. Significantly, Bolles also pointed out that reaching effectiveness in each of these boxes required finding meaning or mission. Essentially, then, he identified a process for not only finding balance in life but also finding satisfaction.
Things have changed since publication of The Three Boxes of Life, in 1978. Today, we tend to see our lives as integrated wholes, and are well aware of the importance of things like life-long learning, down time for play, and rewarding work. Increasingly, though, we find our laptops or PDAs keep us tethered to work as never before. So, in a very real sense, things have remained the same. Most people continue to strive to balance work against life – with the dream of keeping work within bounds, allowing more time for life! So prevalent is this perspective that countless articles by psychologists, life coaches, and other experts continue to provide advice on time management and stress reduction as strategies for achieving balance.
I wonder, though, if there might not be a better approach. As I see it, the secret to overall balance and well being could be in finding balance in each of six areas of living; specifically: career, family, relationships, self-care, leisure, and spirituality. And the key to finding balance in each area of living is focusing on what you value most and what gives your life meaning. In so doing, you are more apt to live the dreams that you might have thought would need to be reserved for retirement. Achieving this balance, however, is not a matter of luck, but takes some planning. Still, putting effort into living a full and meaningful life, today, is the best preparation for aging successfully and enhancing your readiness for life transitions such as retirement.
Ultimately, finding meaning and owning a truly satisfying life rests on having clarity about who you are, what you stand for, and the value you bring to others. In the world of career management, having this insight is the basis for a personal brand and can lead to career distinction. Yet, having clarity about your personal brand goes well beyond career, and is relevant at any age. It is the key to unlocking your unique value and bring your passion to all you do; it is the fundamental permission to be yourself. Applied not only to your career but to other areas of your life, a personal brand can empower you to create a satisfying blended life in a world that is increasingly “always on.”
So, perhaps this Labor Day it’s time to consider ways to uncover meaning and integrate learning, work, and play into every part of our lives, no matter what the season.
A few years ago, a friend sent me an invitation to join his network on LinkedIn. I actually didn’t give it a lot of thought, but simply accepted. Had I thought about it, I would probably have said, “I’m on LinkedIn. So what?” Fortunately, experience over the past year has helped me to get over that! Still, I can really see Jason Alba’s point: For a majority of new LinkedIn users the question truly is, “now what?”
