Teryl @ Work

Outside work, unwinding does not always have to be mindful…. (This article was written in response to the LinkedIn February brief #OutsideWork) “ Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else .”   J.M. Barrie And, old faithful, “ Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life ” We aspire towards balanced lives, talk constantly about work/life balance (as if work were not life) and often make work sound like the grudge part of the day.  I like to believe I have an integrated life, instead of a merely balanced one, with paid and unpaid sections. There are those who write their own pay cheques, and, for them, balance and integration are even more difficult to achieve.   The reality is that, for many people, their work is their life.   Even taking vacations cuts into their total absorption. I am not like that, at all! I love what I do for payment. I also love doing the stuff that keep...

What is the difference between balance and integration?  Well, this is how I interpret them: Balance is about creating two separate lives, work and play, and ensuring there is time for both Integration is more around creating a situation where the two overlap, and are well aligned, allowing time for both work and play Imbalance is when work and play are constantly encroaching on each other, there is no down time, and whatever you are doing, you feel like you should be doing something else.... I have really tried to build an integrated life.   Laptops, tablets and smart phones have made it almost possible. There have been some significant positives and negatives.   And my family would be able to share a lot of them, fortunately, none of them have blogs! So what is integration? It is integration to respond to emails over weekends so that you can go to a swimming gala on a Friday afternoon It is not integration to play Candy Crush at your desk during work...