Last week I wrote about how striving for work/life balance can leave you feeling like you're juggling elephants. This week, I ran across a short free e-book by Arnie Herz over on Legal Sanity about creating what he calls work/life synergy. It's an interesting concept. He writes it for an audience of attorneys, but the ideas apply to anyone.
Here's the basic gist of the idea...
Although it may take a healthy dose of self-inquiry and candor, we can gain insight into what’s meaningful to us by investigating how our work as lawyers typically impacts our energy state.
To do this detective work, we need to examine how our daily professional doings—including the people and issues we engage and the interactions we have—augment or deplete our energy. Do they make us feel upbeat, positive and excited or bring us stress, anger, resentment or even physical illness?
He calls the resulting insight the XE (energy exchange) Factor. He then lays out his approach to optimizing the XE Factor:
With this energy-meaning connection in mind, we see that we can experience work-life synergy when we manage our time effectively, form mutually energizing relationships and perform tasks that we’re passionate about.
He goes on to outline a mindset for each optimization aspect:
1. Time Must Be Managed Effectively
Mindset: I know where to put my attention and who is essential to my success and why. I arrange my priorities and goals accordingly.2. Relationships Must Be Mutually Energizing
Mindset: I seek to be a master of relationships, adept at managing this exchange of energy with others.3. Tasks Must Be Meaningful
Mindset: I know what work motivates me and why. I align my work with my passions.
Take a look at the different facets of your life. What is feeding and energizing you? What is draining and depleting you?
How is your XE Factor? Could it use some adjusting?
[via Judy Martin at The WorkLife Monitor]
Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst TM
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