It was my birthday a few days ago, and I got thinking: “o boy! Like play, like play, person don dey old o.” Reality dawned on me. LOL. Anyway, I am extremely grateful to God for life, for his mercies and his sufficient grace over my life.

Looking back, I’m grateful for my little achievements so far, and looking forward to better years ahead.
The past few years of my life have been solely dedicated to starting up, running and expanding my businesses, and I have no apologies for that. However, on a second thought, I guess there were times when I didn’t balance my hustles with my personal life. And that, in some ways, affected a couple of things. I have leant my lesson and I am determined that, going forward, there must always be a balance between my business and other personal activities.

Work-Life balance is extremely important. Quite apparently, the more rigorous your work ethic is, will not necessarily determine how successful you will become. If it worked that way, I probably would be a billionaire by now. Don’t get me wrong. One needs to work hard, but, at same time, it must be balanced with one’s personal life.
In a nut shell, work-life balance is the state of equilibrium where a person equally prioritizes the demands of his or her career and the demands of his or her personal life.


Here are a Few Ways to Create a Better Work-Life Balance:
1. Work comes first in the equation. You need to, first of all, find yourself a job or business that pays the bills before planning a life. After all you won’t have a life to plan if you can’t put food on your table.

2. After getting yourself a job or business, you must be diligent at it. It is diligence that will help you “sustain” the job/business. Your job/business must be sustainable in order to have a level of financial security and be able to engage in other personal activities.

3. Your lifestyle, at each point, should be determined by the kind of work you do. A person who works multiple jobs cannot live the same lifestyle as one with a 9-5 job. Just as a person with 9-5 job cannot live the same lifestyle as one who runs a business. So, you’ll need to identify what kind of leisure your job can afford you.

4. Limit time-wasting activities and people – If you are saying the time you have at your disposal is not enough to share between your job/business and your personal life, then including time-wasting activities and people will even worsen the situation. So, anything or person that can waste that little time of yours should be avoided as much as possible.

5. Don’t let your relationships turn abysmal because you are always neck-deep in work (relationships with God, family, friends, partner/spouse, associations, etc.). Likewise, make sure your relationships do not eat into, or negatively influence your work time/schedule. Create a balance.

6. Be careful to not get carried away with the bustle of work/business, so much so that, you put your life on hold. If you’d like to, further your education, learn a craft or skill by the side, plan a trip abroad if you can afford it, start a family if you are ready. Basically, have a social life – a life outside your workspace.

7. Go on vacation from time to time to rest, refresh and reboot – Upon returning from vacation, you're likely to be more focused and productive. Studies have shown that chronic stress can actually modulate a part of the brain that inhibits goal-directed activities, and this can cause problems with memory and even a decline in learning ability. Periodical time-offs can tune up a well-functioning brain.
Also, health is wealth. If anything happens to you, whether you’re the business owner or a member of staff, life will go on. The organization can only go a long way by commiserating with your family. So, you need to take time-offs often, so as to rest and relax your brains.

Final Thoughts
More often than not, work/business takes precedence over every other thing in our lives. Our desire to succeed professionally or in business can push us to set aside our well-being and personal development in other areas which might not be work-related. Creating a harmonious work-life balance or work-life integration is critical to improve, not only our physical, emotional and mental well-being, but our career/business also. Sincerely, this is the only way you can have a meaningful life. Remember that there is much more to life than the hustle and bustle.

Article by;

Gboye Daniel
IG: @gboyedaniel