A Perfect Life Balance is all about Time, not Money

We’ve seen many people struggling to choose between work and life balance and to such extent they are lost in transition not knowing what they really want to do in the end. Just take a look at the people around you. There are some who struggle to find their feet, some who struggle at their career and some who struggle in juggling their families. All of these people have one thing in common. They simply plan too much to not to plan.

To me, if you are spending the time right now determining the priorities in your life, an awful lot of hard decisions later on will not become as hard as you think it is after all. For instance, if you are a fresh graduate, putting your career first, whether you are operating in a corporate world or as an entrepreneur, is definitely high on your priority. You can look forward and set yourself a 10 to 15 years goal. But you absolutely need to put in your effort into achieveing this and that means throwing your energy into succeeding. Treat your career and job as a platform to keep a steady check coming in, a platform which you can enjoy later on in your life.

However, as years pass by, you may feel like something is missing. You may be confused and disheartened. Something which you felt was once mighty important to you in the past may suddenly lose its appeal. Suddenly you feel like you want to spend more quality time with your family. If that is the case, you may want to set your family as priority. You may want to settle for a lesser paying job with more flexible working hours for instance, so that you can have time and energy to spend with your loved ones. Some money is still required here as you will still need to fund your expenses and others such as your children’s education which I’m sure you will want to give nothing but the best.

The key to finding a perfect life balance is all about figuring out your time, not money. Time, at the end of the day, is the one limited currency we are racing against in life. We can always make and earn more money, but we can never buy time. Not even the richest person in the world can afford that.

Today, one of my colleague at work asked me why do I always have to go home and eat dinner with my family. I just looked at them and replied because they are my family. It is a pretty straightforward answer but am surprised of the number of times I was asked the same question. Traditional culture some of them would say. Maybe they are correct….maybe so….maybe yes.