Creating and maintaining a work-life balance is unique for each of us. It requires an ongoing commitment to life-giving choices that generate fulfillment and joy. Like walking a tightrope that requires careful consideration with each step — as we choose how to expand our time and energy, moment by moment — we are either moving toward a greater sense of alignment or away from it.

For decades, women have been talking about work-life balance and constantly seeking to find it between the demands of work, families, and personal priorities. Men are starting to join in on the balance conversation as well, as suggested in a recent Wall Street Journal article by Rachel Feintzeig, “Male CEOs Tell Us Their Work- Life Rules.” Now, even men are questioning the traditional divides between their professional lives and personal well-being.

A RICH STATE OF BEING, BALANCE REQUIRES CONTINUAL MONITORING AND THOUGHTFUL TUNING AS PRIORITIES CHANGE.

Fundamentally, as humans, balance is essential to our well-being, fulfillment, and overall ability to consistently perform at the highest levels. Continuing to churn through life as it swirls around us without being mindful of balance often leads to increased stress, unhappiness, and burnout.

For years, I tried to achieve a fixed state of balance by keeping life and work compartmentalized. My assumption was that if I nurtured each compartment with equal amounts of attention, my life would grow like a well-tended garden — orderly, in rows, with no plant creeping into a neighboring section, and certainly no weeds cluttering my well-planned space. My discovery has been that when life and work are interconnected, fluid, and sometimes a bit disorderly, I feel the most alive, creative, and whole.