Introducing Work+Life
If we keep pretending that we can achieve a split between living life and working work, we’ll always be unsatisfied with both.
“Work-life balance.” Consider it the buzz phrase of the modern age. The problem is most of us don’t feel very balanced.
When’s the last time you felt a balanced ratio of work to life? Half the time, I feel like a yoga newb (which I sort of am), where I’m twisted in uncomfortable positions failing to achieve equilibrium.
Some internet people claim “work-life balance” is easy to attain. Those folks are probably simultaneously promoting their personal brand and other side hustles, promo codes and all. Others over-correct, making work their primary identity by rising, grinding, hustling, or some other -ing word. The problem is those people are too stressed to be #blessed.
The fact is most of us spend roughly half of our conscious day - that’s a third of our prime adult lives - working. Work, inevitably, becomes a defining characteristic of life.
“Hi, I’m Travis.”
“Hey Travis, nice to meet you. What do you do?”
It’s right up there with “Where are you from?” and “Which kid is yours?”
I’ve worked a variety of jobs in a variety of settings under a variety of bosses, and I’ve been fortunate to experience the workplace (and the people in it) from a few different hierarchical levels. I know I don’t know everything, and there is a lot of life in me yet unlived. I do, however, have a rudimentary understanding of what makes a good workplace and what makes a bad one - what makes work enjoyable, and what makes it suck. And the good, the bad, the joy, and the suck all ultimately affect life.
Here’s what I know to be true: Work has the power to ruin a day. It also has the power to energize passions. It has the power to fund fun. It also has the power to suck us dry. It has the power to fill us up. It also has the power to degrade mental health. It also provides mental stimulus. It can instill meaning. It’s also sometimes just a means to an end. It can initiate friendships, relationships, and rivalries. It can also end them.
Through work, we experience major highs and major lows. We also experience the mundane and routine, which is honestly a vast majority of life. Tangent: this makes me think of “Survivor,” where the show highlights the drama, but the real experience is actually mostly just bored, hungry people laying around. But I digress.
All told, work is part of life. That’s why the “work-life balance” thing doesn’t fully resonate with me. “Work-life balance” pits work and life as opposites, like “work” exists outside of “life” and there’s no “life” in “work.” Malarkey.
I named this blog/substack/thing “Work+Life” because it’s impossible not to add them together.
No, I’m not encouraging you to make work your life. I’m also not saying you can’t have a life outside of work. But if we keep pretending that we can achieve a split between living life and working work, we’ll always be unsatisfied with both.
Thus, “Work+Life” will seek to explore work through the empathetic, intricate, and quirky aspects of life: through humanity, understanding, insights, lessons learned, and “aha!” ideas, big and small. We’ll talk about dignity, feedback (or is it feedforward now?), Magic Loops, side hustles, healthy company cultures, getting big things done, and so much more.
Please, join me as I walk with you through “Work+Life.” Enter your email to subscribe, and jump into the comments to contribute to the conversation. Also, if you want to chat about an idea in particular, email me your suggestion; I promise I’ll respond.
What’s the google ngram like for “compartmentalize,” I feel like that became a pop psych phrase around the time of work-life balance. Look forward to reading 🤙