b"The Balance Trap: Why Life ShouldntIts not about doing everything equally. Its about creating the right proportions. Sometimes that means giving more energy to Compete with Work work. Other times, it means stepping back entirely because life demands your attention. Real balance is flexible. It's human. Youve been lied to.Life-Work Balance: A Reframe It was wrapped in buzzwords. Sold as a productivity hack.Imagine flipping the script. Instead of trying to integrate life Endorsed by HR, TED Talks, and time management gurus alike.into your work, what if you integrated your work into your life? Its called work-life balanceand it doesnt exist.This is what I call life-work balance. It starts with a clear centeryour why. Your values. Your purpose. Not your job Not in the way youve been told to chase it.title or your email inbox. You dont need more time. You dont need a better app. YouAnd heres the kicker: when you put life first, work doesnt dont need a fourth color-coded calendar that syncs across yoursuffer. It becomes more focused, more efficient, and often, more devices.fulfilling. You need a reframe.You dont need to quit your job or walk away from the business The idea of work-life balance is built on a false premise: that workyou built. You just need to stop letting it consume every and life are two opposing forces to be managed, as if youreavailable part of you. standing on a teeter-totter, trying to keep both sides perfectlyStart Subtracting level. Thats not balance. Thats stress disguised as strategy. Balance isnt about adding more self-care to an already packed And nowhere is this more obvious than in industries likeschedule. Its not about squeezing in a walk between Zoom calls constructionwhere long hours, relentless schedules, and highor meditating for five minutes before bed so you can wake up demands are often treated as a badge of honor.and do it all again. But heres the reality: when life becomes what happens inIts about eliminating the things that dilute your presence and between your work, youve already lost the balance youre tryingdrain your energy. to achieve. Ask yourself: Is life something that happens while you are doing work, or is work something that happens while you are doing life? Start- What can I stop doing that no longer serves me? with Stop, Chapter 1- What am I carrying that I was never meant to hold? The Pandemic Pulled Back the Curtain- What would happen if I said no just once this week? When COVID-19 upended daily routines, it also exposed theYou dont create space by adding. You create it by subtracting. fragility of the work-life myth. As people were forced to work from home, the illusion that these two aspects of life could beSo What Now? neatly divided shattered. People didnt resist going back to theIf you're waiting for the perfect time to reset your priorities, let office because they were lazy. They resisted because, for the firstme save you the suspenseit wont come. Life wont slow time, they experienced something different: life-first living.down for your clarity. You have to claim it in motion. It wasnt about convenience. It was about clarity.Start by saying it out loud: Life comes first. The kind of clarity that makes you ask: What am I really doingLet your schedule reflect that. Let your conversations reflect all this for?that. Let your leadership reflect that. A Personal Reality CheckYou dont have to balance life and work. You just have to When my oldest son was diagnosed with non-Hodgkinsstop putting work in charge. Lymphoma as a high school junior, balance wasnt something I had time to think about. Author Bio: It was suddenly irrelevant. The only thing that mattered was showing upfor him, for myThis article is adapted from Chapter 1 of Ray Gages family, for the moments that couldnt be rescheduled orbook, Start with Stop: Reimagining Success by Letting Go outsourced or postponed until Q4.of Whats Not Working. Ray is a leadership coach, Eight months of treatment clarified a truth that corporate culturespeaker, and entrepreneur helping individuals and tends to ignore: You dont find balance by trying to do more. Youorganizations break free from outdated norms and create find it by choosing what mattersand being present for it.space for what truly matters . Everything else is noise. Why the Old Model Doesnt Work Work-life balance fails for one simple reason: it assumes work comes first. Even the phrasing puts life in second placesomething you try to fit in after the grind. That structure is inherently flawed. Balance is found in space, not in weight. Start with Stop, Chapter 1 5"