By Todd Duncan

A recent study showed that nearly 75 percent of us admit the need to reduce our work/life tension. Yet, less than 25 percent of us do anything about it.

Why is that?

I believe it has a lot to do with a prominent feeling of powerlessness. We don’t feel we possess the proper resources—enough money, time, flexibility, or the ideal circumstances—to manage a gratifying work life and a rewarding personal life. And so we choose to pursue one or the other. Fortunately, the choice to work or to live is not our only option.

Living In Harmony

The first step toward work/life harmony has less to do with how well you use your time and more to do with how clearly you see the spectrum of choices before you and how willing you are to accommodate your preferences, personally and professionally.

Jason Lacy is a good example of this. He is a twenty-nine-year-old entrepreneur who recently moved from Miami to San Diego to work with his brother and his childhood best friend. The opportunity offers great potential but no guarantees, and it has little to do with his previous eight years of work. Some friends see the decision as impulsive, but Jason sees a much greater risk in missing out on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Making A Choice

Stories like his suggest that achieving more harmonious days requires a willingness to make choices that may seem to be counterproductive. In generations past, people typically chose a career path and stayed on it because changing course was deemed irresponsible, even dishonorable. Many of us were raised around this mind-set and are consequently (and often subconsciously) blinded to the full spectrum of choices before us— choices that can move us much closer to a wholly gratifying existence; choices that are, in fact, more responsible than remaining stressed out and dissatisfied.

With a much wider sea of opportunities before you than your predecessors, you make a mistake by accepting limp or oppressive circumstances in the name of duty. You have more opportunities to achieve work/life harmony than you realize. Often the opportunities lie within the realm of your current situation. Sometimes they don’t. But they require a choice every time: you must be shrewd enough to make the choice and then willing enough to follow through with the necessary adjustments. This is how you begin to retrain your work/life tension toward work/life harmony.

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