Work/Life Integration

Welcome to Pelby biz podcast. I'm Dr. Kelly Alhui. I have grown and established brick and mortar practice in Northern Virginia called Ortho Pelvic Physical Therapy and also founded Pelvibiz, which is an online business consulting company that helps healthcare providers make more money and be healthy while doing it, especially in the pelvic health realm. And let's get into today's episode. Today I'm going to talk about work life integration, not work life balance. So work life integration, what the heck is that? Well, what it is is not thinking that there has to be such a division between work and life. You already have the mindset that you want to work life balance. You've already lost that life. I truly believe that because you're already categorizing work as a negative and you're categorizing life as a positive and positive and negatives, yes, they like to attract, but at the same time you're already containing it and saying, well, I can't have basically enjoyment out of work because it's over here. That's a negative. But I'm going to have positive out of life and vacation and whatever else. Vacations can also be negative if you have to do a lot of stuff on vacation. Right. So I like to call it a work life integration because I truly try to preach this to my team, that if you can integrate your work into your life and your life into your work, you're overall going to be happier, you're going to be more satisfied, you're going to be just in general wanting to do the best that you can at both life and work. And it's just going to make you a happier person overall and that you're going to love every single day that what you're doing. Otherwise, if you're like, oh, I'm living for the weekends, if you're living for the weekends, you are in the wrong field. And that should tell you, you got to get out of what you're doing and do something else. Because living for the weekend is just, I think, a path of disaster. I really do. I'm going to give you an example of kind of how I integrate my work life integration. Number one, I love people. I love hanging out with people. You may or may not be that person, but I actually love people. How I integrate, that is I moved to Northern Virginia. I didn't know anyone started to do a doodle meetup where I would take my dog and only hang out with doodles and we would go to parks. Well, while we were Doing that, guess what that was for me? Besides my dog having the best time of her life and me throwing birthday parties for my dogs with all the doodle friends and all the parents and all that, it was crazy. By the way, that was also a networking opportunity for me to interact with people in my local community that had the same interest and many goldendoodles. And I was able to talk and collaborate with them and they actually ended up being my first clients. They were actually the first people that were on my website, in my apartment, gym, posing with a TRX and on a fitness equipment because they're the first ones that I knew. And I was like, hey, can I use you guys as models? And if I didn't cultivate this mini doodle group then I just because I wanted to like hang out and have friends, I wouldn't have even had any people to help market my business either. So that's what I'm talking about is an integration. I'll give you another example. Another example is if you're at a desk all day long, why don't you use a stand up desk and do a walking pad? So let's say my goal was to walk a 5k. Instead of me going to work, coming home and then walking, I'm going to use a walking pad. I'm going to bring it to work, I'm going to walk my five miles or three miles or whatever and then that way when I get home I don't have to go walking. I already did it. That's work life integration. The other thing I like to think of is, okay, so let's say I'm into like eating healthy and I really want to make sure that I'm hydrated and I'm eating everything that I need. Well, when I go to work I need to have a full on stash of anything that's going to keep my energy up. Because my main goal, and this is actually true my main goal is really to have energy, like unlimited energy. And that's all I live for, is to just keep having energy so I can keep doing the things that I do. So I'm very particular about it and I'm very cautious when it comes to my health. I'm very aware, I shouldn't even say cautious. I'm very aware. So for me, if I'm at work, I'm going to need lots and lots of food that I can actually just eat in two seconds because I'm busy. So how I integrate that is I prep ahead of time and I'll be Like, okay, what is, what are high fiber foods so that I don't get constipated. High fiber foods that I can eat quickly so that I can go to my next meeting or go do whatever I need to do. And so I'll have a stash that you don't have to bring every single week that's permanently at your work. So that, that way you can't get off track. You need to bring a big jug of water, like massive jug, bigger than those Stanley cups that everyone has. And maybe I bring electrolytes because that keeps me hydrated and that keeps me going. So I'm going to keep that there and every single day it's a reminder of, hey, I need you to eat this because it's going to fuel you. And it's also high fiber intake. Oh, and by the way, I have this thing for my face, this spray thing for my face. Let me bring that to work as well. I'm going to spray it on my face every single day because I'm there and I know I'm going to do it because it's sitting right there. I can't miss it. And that's going to help my face not flare up like it normally does. Okay, great. So that's just another example of instead of having all the stuff in my house to where I'm like, oh, I just have to wait till I get home to get the food that I want, or I have to wait till I get home to spray this thing on my face and my face is on flare, bring it into work and have it literally sitting in there so that you create the habit and you're happier because you're like, ah, thank you, thank God I got food and I'm not waiting till I get home. Okay. Or like, let me think of another integration. Another integration is you want to, you want to be just. I don't. I'm thinking of health stuff because I think that's really important. You want to integrate some self care. Okay, great. Well, maybe at work you instead of going home for a lunch break, maybe you just say hey to your boss. Or maybe you are the boss. I'm just going to take this table. I'm going to take 30 minutes and I'm going to take a nap. And you take a nap there, you shut the lights off and you just chill. And that's what you do to reset, to recharge, to come back. And that's cool. Like you can do that, right? And so that's what you need. That's what you need you wind down and then you build back up again. So that's like a midday break. What else? I think just a game of integration. Another integration is like I take my dog for walks around these shops that I have around my house. Well, when I do that, she gets all of the treats from the stores because I bring treats to all the stores so that she can go in. And like every single day it's like trick or treating and she gets her treat anyways. That being said, when I go into all the stores every single day, I talk to business owners every single day. So every single day they're seeing my face and I'm seeing their face. And we're connecting, we're collaborating. We're doing a fashion show with one of them where they're going to talk about body imaging and we're going to talk about how to work their abs. So that's the collaboration. I'm doing marketing at seven, eight o' clock at night. But I'm not even trying. I'm just friends with them because I just made friends with them because I see them every single day. So how do you integrate it so it doesn't feel like a, oh my God, I got to go leave my kids, I got to go market. Like, if you have kids, take them out places. When you take them out, that's your marketing. So it doesn't have to be so separate to where it's like, only this is work and only this is family and only this whatever. Try to integrate it. The more you can integrate it, the better it's going to be. If you're going to kid's birthday party, integrate that for marketing. Okay? That is marketing right there. So that's why I integrate work life balance. I mean, not work life, work life integration, not balance. I truly believe, like I said, if you're trying to balance and have a perfect life over here and a perfect work, it's never going to happen. And you're setting yourself up for failure. You really are. And it's just I don't ever think you're gonna be happy. So how can you integrate already what you love to do, which for me is I like to talk to people, I like to help people. I like to build a community. I like to connect so and so to so and so. I like to see growth. Like, that's what I love. So how can I integrate that not only from a business perspective, but also in something that actually brings me joy? And I can do that very easily with my dog and my business. So, yeah, I just want you guys to think about how can you integrate work, AKA your business and life? And if you can align when those things align, you're going to feel so much better about your business and it's not going to feel so overwhelming. And you're going to be like, oh, my God, yeah, I could do anything because this is all integrated and I don't have to think about this as separately. So whatever your goal is, and I tell this to my employees too. Whatever your goal is. Like, one of my people is trying to do a fitness competition and she needs to walk or ride a bike every morning. Well, do it at work. Why are you just working? That's cool. It's fine. You know, if someone is like, hey, I want to, I don't know, do an ironman. Okay, well, let's get a peloton bike. Let's put it out at my office and ride the peloton bike and answer phones. I don't know. We got to figure this stuff out, right? And so try to work with people or your employees or maybe even yourself to try to figure out how I'm going to integrate not anything extra at the end of the night because no one has time anymore for anything extra. So that is my spiel on work life integration and why I think we should call it that over Work life balance and set yourself up for success and think of ways that you what makes you happy and then whatever makes you happy or whatever you're trying to achieve for your goal. How can you integrate that already into your work day? That aligns with your personal and that's how you win. So hopefully that helps you guys and hopefully everyone has a great night. Bye, guys. Thank you guys so much for listening to the podcast. This podcast is sponsored by Jane. They are the people that are going to have amazing scheduling system for your patients. They're going to provide you with a super bill, they're going to make templates for you. They're going to provide you with the best customer service. And because of that, they allowed us to have a code for one free month for, for those that are wanting to try Jane for their scheduling, checking out super bills, telehealth, all the different options. That code is Pelvibiz1MO. We'll put in the show notes, but Pelvibiz1MO. That is the code for Jane. And thank you so much, Jane, for sponsoring this podcast. If you guys want more information and want to learn how that you can keep bettering yourselves, go ahead, click the link down below. And make sure that you book a call. And we love to provide any clarity questions on any follow ups. Bye, guys.