Get Your House in Order
You have reached your limit.
Your company would be hosting its annual overseas conference which will be attended by all the bigwigs of the industry. It would present an ideal opportunity for you not just to sharpen your skills in the event management, but also to network with specialists and decision-makers whom you were keen to impress.
The conference is several months away, and you have been selected to lead the organizing committee. You oversee the marketing campaign, registration, venue selection and the agenda for the event. It involves a great deal of toil, but you feel delight in even the more mundane tasks as you imagine the event would be a rocking success.
As engaged as you are at work, matters at home are not as appealing. Long hours at the office meant you would come home late. Lacking the motivation and energy to cook, you ended up ordering fast food on almost a daily basis. Your sleep routine is constantly disrupted by late night tasks.
Whereas you had previously made it a point to contact your parents almost every second day you had not even called to check in on them in weeks. Your friends have drifted to the periphery of your attention, and you would frequently forget to respond to their messages.
Within a few months, you have gained nearly 10 kilos, have dark bags around your eyes and look like a completely different person. Outside work, you are consistently on edge and your moods alternated between lethargy and indulgence.
It was no wonder then, that two days before the conference, your body gave in. What started as a fever became fits of coughing and shivers. Your doctor ruled out any possibility of a quick recovery effectively shutting you out of the conference that you had so meticulously planned. You would now have to rest at home to recuperate from the damage you have inflicted on yourself in the past few months.
Fix your life and then the company
It is very difficult to compartmentalize your life but one aspect of it will inevitably spill over and affect the other, no matter how effectively we try to segment them from each other. Your personal and professional domains may or may not interact much, but what is common in both is you. Therefore, it is you that you must take care of.
Your career may be important, but having a 100% focus on it may be to the detriment of your home life and also bring about disastrous consequences for you in the long term. You are under no obligation to your company to sacrifice your personal and familial well-being to ensure that it grows – your ultimate obligation is to your self and ensuring that other facets of your life also get their due attention.
You are under no obligation to your company to sacrifice your personal and familial well-being to ensure that it grows – your ultimate obligation is to your self and ensuring that other facets of your life also get their due attention.
Action steps
Chart your life: Take the time to list the various aspects of your life; from your work, your family life, your close and social relationships, your financial situation, your physical and mental health and your intellectual growth. Frankly assess each area and try to come up with some metrics of how you would track your own progress in these domains.
Have some accountability: Ensure you have external methods of monitoring is well. It can be a close family member, spouse or even a therapist of coach. Regularly share your experiences on how you are doing within the big picture. Look out for warning signs such as over-exertion and neglect before situations spiral out of control. If necessary, take time off from work to put your personal affairs in order rather than let them fester.
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