The Visibility Mindset

5Finding Your Optimal Work‐Life Balance

Bernice Chao

If you feel “burnout” setting in, if you feel demoralized and exhausted, it is best, for the sake of everyone, to withdraw and restore yourself.

—Dalai Lama, Buddhist teacher

Have you ever described how you're feeling about work as “drowning”? If you have or currently are, chances are your work‐life balance is out of alignment. In this chapter, we will talk about a few tools that will help you find the balance between your work life and personal life by talking through what matters and why. Work‐life balance is the amount of time you spend on your career and working versus the time you spend with your loved ones and doing the things you enjoy. When creating a life of balance, you are creating a space in your life that will be open to new possibilities.

If you are knee‐deep in work and frazzled due to looming deadlines, you may miss out on new, exciting opportunities because you may be in an unstable, unhealthy work environment. This chapter will discuss how to stay Zen in the midst of overwhelming responsibilities, and it will support and guide you in taking an actionable approach to your personal work‐life balance. As a result, you will be able to show up more confidently, manage your priorities better, and create new opportunities to help yourself grow.

As Asians, we're generally taught to be hardworking to a fault. This may look like consistently putting in more work hours in our days, taking on more than we can manage, ...