There is nothing more amazing that the feeling of your own accomplishment in your career. You might have a booming business or be rising up the ranks of your career path, you know how much time and energy it takes to be that focused and feel success. But as you grow in your career, that level of focus and energy can often put your relationships with your family and friends to the test. There is only so much of YOU to pass around and before you burn out, you have to learn how balance both a thriving career and a great relationship. You can have it all. But you have to make time for it.
You might be thinking how can I possibly find time for either finding love or doing more in my relationship? I am already married to my career…I really don’t have time for this.
A booming career is great, but if you have no one to share and support you in your successes and losses, your career can become a lonely place. If you are in a relationship, your best asset is always your partner. Two heads are better than one! So growing stronger together and supporting each other in the right ways will help you continue to grow in both your career and have a great relationship. Learn how…
4 Ways to Balance Both a Thriving Career and a Great Relationship
Learn how to Time Block
It is easy for us to say that we are busy, but are we really? What does busy actually look like? I can reflect on a day and think…where did the time go? But as I start to look closer throughout my day from work to home, I may have spent time talking to coworkers about my weekend plans, spent time on Social Media (non constructive!), checking email, reading the news. So despite my time being used, I really didn’t constructively use my time to get the most important things done.
If finding work life balance in your relationships is important to you, you must learn how to time block and dedicate specific time to things that are important to you. Time blocking is a purposeful action and can build around the demands of your career schedule. Start with time blocking things that are big ‘time drains’ such as browsing social media. Set 30 mins a day to do it and stick to that time. When you get home, set 30 minutes to do email (don’t allow yourself to do anything else online during that time), then shut it down. Set a period of time for you and your partner to spend time, distraction free, together just hanging out. Watch a tv show together without being on your phone, share a glass of wine or watch a whole movie. It might be just a small amount of distraction free time, but it will add up to big results and payoff in your relationship.
Value What You Both Bring To The Relationship
In any relationship, both of you have something valuable that you bring to the table and can credit to combined success. If you have a thriving career, then your partner has probably helped you get to this level of success with emotional support. Laws of attraction brought you together, so stop and think about what you are both really good at and can celebrate more.
I know that in my relationship I am really good at the small details, the planning, the organization but know that it also gives me some anxiety so my husband knows how to calm me down, make me see big picture and not stress about the small stuff. I celebrate that type of support because it is what I need to be successful.
Learn how to find each other’s values in your relationship by starting small with a home project that you can do together. It be creating or building something or even decorating a room. We often make assumptions about what we feel are good at or not as good at compared to our partner, but by doing a project together, you might learn something new and can celebrate that.
Read: Find Life Balance in your Marriage with your Husband
Reflect on your success in your career, but also stop to think about who was there to help you and how they did that. Thank your partner for what they do for you and how they support you in your journey. It will mean a lot.
Make a Date, Don’t Break a Date
When you career is going great and you are super busy, you can have good intentions about spending time with your partner in your relationship. It happens very easily, but somethings comes up and you can keep rescheduling and excusing the time that you don’t spend together. To combat this issue, no matter how busy your are, you need to set time aside to date each other and do something special free of family distractions.
Ideally, you can start this once a month by declaring a date day or night. In order to do this well, you must make sure that you set up this time a month prior. Get a sitter for your kids or send them to grandma’s for the night. Clear your calendar or better yet, prioritize your calendar so you are free and cannot be scheduled on that day. Now plan your date making sure that your date is fun and different. Go to a cooking class, play mini-golf, go go-cart racing. Do an activity outside of the ordinary dinner out to build memories together and learn more about each other.
Read: Find Balance: 50 Ways to Date your Husband
Find a Personal Passion Project
We often make the mistake by thinking that building a great relationship with our partners means that we need to spend more and more time together. Don’t get me wrong, you did need to make purposeful time together daily as well as time to do activities together, but you also need to be able to self develop as an individual in order to make your relationship stronger. The way to do this is to find a passion or a hobby that is not a work activity or something you can only do with your partner. It is a passion project that support you and your own self development.
Personal self development is a way to improve self awareness and identity as well as develop hidden talents. Start by thinking about what is something you enjoy doing (outside of working) and how you can set goals to develop in that area. For example, maybe you enjoy exercising and running. You could create a plan to complete one 5K race per month as a goal to fulfil your passion. Maybe you love animals, but your career/schedule doesn’t allow for you have them at home. You could volunteer on weekends at a shelter to walk the dogs or set up a pet food drive.
Honestly, you might surprise yourself and find that by pursing a personal passion, you self-confidence, self-worth and connectivity in your relationship with grow and you may even find a business opportunity develop from it.
Having a successful career doesn’t meant that you have to sacrifice your relationships. It might take some effort, but your partner is your biggest asset and helps you be the person you are today. Use these four strategies to successfully have a thriving career and a great relationship! Let me know what you think in the comments!
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