A short recorded conversation where Kevin Ray Ward argues that "work-life balance" is a misleading dichotomy and proposes treating life holistically. He outlines a seven-domain framework—feelings (emotions), friends & family (relationships), fitness (health), finances, faith, fun (enjoyment), and focus (primary purpose/work)—and explains how neglect in any domain affects business and overall life.
Chapters
I really like a lot of things you just said there. I think that the work life balance thing is a big challenge for people, especially when they start producing at a really high level because they don't know how to balance still, you know, nurturing the family unit, still taking care of themselves and their health and their weight and their fitness and all that. And, you know, whether it be spiritual stuff also, whatever's part of your mix, they start losing that mix and. And then it starts to affect the business 100%.
We say there's seven domains, okay, so write fast. But there's your feelings, which is your emotions. Your feelings probably drive more than anything else, which is crazy. Nobody talks about it, nobody thinks about it. But your emotions, when you're operating with fear or guilt or lack of confidence, all those are emotions. So there's your feelings, there's your friends and family relationships, there's your fitness, there's your finances, there's your faith, there is your fun, which means you've got to be enjoying what you're doing. You got to be doing something that you enjoy having fun in life. And then there is your focus, and that is what you're really focused on in your life. Maybe real estate. It's got to be. Real estate may be just for money, so it becomes your finance, but it also. A lot of people are focused. If they're building a career, building a business, their major definite purpose, as Napoleon Hill called it, and think and grow rich. Their focus is, is real estate, which takes your finances. Hopefully you enjoy it, so you're having some fun with it, but you got to manage your feelings, you got to manage your health and all of that and those domains. It's not a matter of work life balance, because that puts a dichotomy that here's work and here's life and I got to balance them. It's impossible. It's all life. So I train. It's all life. Your business is a part of your life. You're sucking in your business, your life's going to suck. You're not making money, you're not putting points on the scoreboard and dollars in your bank account. Life's going to suck. So there is no work life balance. It's all life.
