I am passionionate about living a sustainable work-life balance that includes rhthyms of play constantly woven in. I want to master the Art of Living, not simply default to balancing my career with my family. I’m convinced there is more Life and Play to be experienced.
In today’s podcast, I outline how I formed this deep passion for this Trifecta of Work Life Play.
Click to Listen The Trifecta of Work Life Play Episode #40
Podcast Highlights
- Why I believe in the Trifecta of combining all three Work Life Play
- How “succeeding” in any one category of the trifecta is not sufficient
- Why work-life balance by itself lacks long term sustainability
- How running with a rock on the bottom of the ocean taught me to play
- Why Fantasy Football and watching TV on the weekends is not the same as living adventurously
The Original Blog Post
Why Work-Life Balance is not enough
I never set out to write a blog.
I told myself, that’s the last thing the world needs, another guy with an opinion.
This month marks my three-year anniversary of this accidental creation, Work Life Play Blog/Podcast.
I am passionionate about living a sustainable work-life balance that includes rhthyms of play constantly woven in. I want to master the Art of Living, not simply default to balancing my career with my family. I’m convinced there is more Life and Play to be experienced.
I’ve learned that my voice is best inserted @ the intersections and crossroads of all three. My hope is that I have helped you blur the lines of distinction between where one starts and where the other ends.
Why this Trifecta?
This is unrehearsed, but here it goes.
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking through how best to explain this trifecta. Most people can usually get one or maybe two of these right. But rarely have I met anyone who succeeds in all three categories of living.
Blurring the Lines
I want to live a lifestyle where the daily lines between Work Life Play are impossible to draw. I want the rhythms of my life to ebb and flow within this trifecta every day. In my old life, my life looked something more like this,
I work from 9 am to 5:30 pm.
I play on Saturday mornings.
I spend time with my family and friends on the weekends.
I’m in process of undoing these old lines of demarcation. I’ve learned that a more gratifying-joy-filled sustainable lifestyle is achieved by blurring the lines every single day. becoming an artist of a Work Life Play lifestyle.
Work
I’ve witnessed a lot of sharks in the business world that seem to lack a conscious. They accomplish monumental achievements but in the end they are miserable, lonely, xxx.
One of my friends once said about himself,
I’ve had a front row chair to watch the Commanders of industries erect kingdoms, but their lives sucks.
I want to swim with the sharks, but retain my integrity, preserve my relationships and not become an “xxx”.
Life
I believe living well requires that attention be paid to our relationships and our physical and spiritual health.
Life requires lots of relationships. Relationships can be a struggle and they can also be beautiful. We cannot escape them so we should probably figure out how to live well within them.
I want to live well within relationships. And when things don’t go well…
I want to clean up the messes I create and boast about the fact that I am and always will be under-renovation.
Personal health and wellness doesn’t happen on accident. It takes a constant purposeful attention. I want to live a long, healthy, active life without becoming obsessive about it.
I want to feel good at age 80 so I’m doing something about it at age 42.
As Rob Bell says “Everything is Spiritual“. In my experience, spiritual things are as inescapable as are human relationships. I’m not interested in being an evangelist here on my blog.
There are a lot of other people who do that better than I can. I do want to offer encouragement that this part of us can’t be ignored.
Some people seem to approach spiritual things like a toddler covering his eyes who believes his covered eyes make him hidden. We know better, don’t we? He is still seen even though he believes otherwise.
I believe we are seen, so we might as well get to know who is looking at us.
Play
Most men I know abandoned play a long time ago. They grow up, get jobs, become responsible, grow a potbelly and settle for Fantasy Football leagues and Xbox games as their only adventures.
The world is too big, too wild and too mysterious to stay indoors.
I run, bike, swim, climb, fish, surf, and I’m working on learning to ride a long board (skateboard). More importantly, I’ve learned to play amidst life’s difficulties, small margins of time and life’s obligations. I want you to play a lot more.
Get muddy, try something new, play with your kids, go find an adventure and stop always staying at the Westin and get in a tent instead.
I’ve needed to put words to this trifecta combo, if only to help me make sense of it. Thank you for being apart of this evolutionary tale these past three years. I hope its made a difference.
Keep going friend.