Jake Burhans argues work-life balance is flawed because it assumes work can't be your purpose. When work aligns with what matters to you, the question of doing too much disappears. Instead, listen to your body and rest when you need it.
My thoughts on work-life balance have shifted dramatically over the past 5 years. But now more than ever, I realize that if your purpose is in your work, how can you be doing your purpose too much? You really can't. It's not about a work-life balance because work-life balance is like a fundamentally flawed question. It doesn't, it doesn't take into consideration enough variables. What if your work is your purpose? Then is it, is it too much to be doing your purpose at 7 PM at night or on a Saturday, on a Sunday? That's the question. So when you're in a position like myself where I feel like building these businesses and leading people and having impact and creating change and who I've had to become to lead these people, right, the person I've had to step into, that is the work. Like, that is my purpose here on this earth, right? And that's been more spiritual development, personal development, and professional development that I could get anywhere else. So I think when you're in alignment, when it's like a true vocation, meaning that your work, you have this like deep feeling of suitability for your work, then this whole— it's more like a work-life harmony. And you listen to your body and you rest when you need to, but ultimately it's about just accomplishing that purpose and just going as much as you feel is necessary. And that's truly the barometer of work and rest, I think.
