Striking the Balance at Laing O’Rourke

Strinking the balance at Laing O’Rourke

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Aims of the day:

Getting to the core of balance. What does it mean? It’s such an .individual thing. Identifying sabotages that get in the way of this, addressing these. Introducing the term acceptance and how this can pave way for a more balanced life.

Conclusion

Insightful discussion and questions around bringing more balance into life for the women in the audience who tended to take on too much and put themselves last. Discussed this in terms of what this means for work opportunities and family life. We become better by learning how to put our needs first and actually take care of our health first.

Striking the Balance at Laing O’Rourke

Balance is one of the most over used terms when talking about work and home life. But what is it exactly? And is it even achievable? Does it only apply to women in leadership or is it a term that applies to men as well?

The term balance insinuates that both sides of an equation need to be equal. But is that even possible when we want to get the absolute most out of our corporate careers as well as our family and personal pursuits?

At a women in leadership conference at Laing Rourke we tackled this very issue to see if we could get to the crux of its meaning. And the result was interesting. Balance means very different things to different people.

For some it is about spending equal time with each, for others it is about equal effort. I suggest that it’s getting to a point where you are internally happy with the contribution you give towards each. What we really need to do is shift our focus towards acceptance. Once we can accept what is achievable in the finite amount of time we have available, the feeling of balance becomes more achievable.

Women, and particularly women in leadership roles tend to take on more than they can handle and in doing so put themselves last. That’s when we have the feeling of being ‘out of balance’; when we forget to nurture ourselves.

We become better at finding that ideal combination of work and personal life by learning how to put our needs first and take care of our mind and body before anything else.