The Myth of Work Life Balance

I’ve had this myth debunked over and over, yet still slip into the trap of believing I can have/do it all, or that I’m the only one not able to balance all of life’s competing demands all the time. When this happens, I pause to remind myself of a bit of wisdom I received from a mentor. To paraphrase: “Work Life Balance is fake. There is only life, and sometimes there is more or less work in it than we’d like. That’s all.”

This mentor talked about seasons or phases, as opposed to a myth of perpetual balance. Some seasons are more heavily weighted towards work. Others towards family, health or community. And that’s ok. Rather than berating myself for neglecting one or more areas of a very full life, I try to remember it is only for a season.

Another metaphor I like (we’re writers, the more metaphors the better, right?) is that of a juggler. We all juggle, some more skillfully than others. The key is to determine which of the items we juggle can be dropped (these are the rubber ones that bounce) and which cannot (the glass ones). In the parenting years, family is a glass ball. Drop that one and you’ll probably break it. Later in life, health becomes more fragile. Sometimes we’re juggling things better left to drop and roll away forever, like always sending out the perfect Christmas card on time.

I’m entering a period of prioritizing my work. This fall, I attended BoucherCon and CO Gold on back-to-back weekends. By including my family on the trip to San Diego, I was able to juggle networking and quality time with my husband and three daughters. In January, I will graduate with my MFA in Creative Writing. I will also take on additional responsibilities at RMFW this year. As such, regular blog posting is a rubber ball I’m going to pass to another RMFW member for a few months. I have enjoyed interacting with our community in this way and hope to do so again in the new year.

Good luck with your juggling and if you’re dropping stuff once in a while, know you are not alone!

Image by Sarah Richter from Pixabay

Rachel Dempsey

Rachel Dempsey has written and directed over a dozen plays for numerous acclaimed theater organizations such as Imagination Stage and ArtStream. Her prose has won contests such as The Colorado Gold Rush Literary Awards, the Denver Women’s Press Club Emerging Writers Contest and the Writer’s Digest Annual Writing Competition. Her short fiction appears in anthologies from Shacklebound Books, Brigids Gate Press, Timber Ghost Press and Twenty Bellows (Pushcart nominated, 2023). She holds a BFA in Drama and English from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, a Master’s degree in Journalism from Georgetown University and an MFA in Creative Writing from Regis in Denver where she currently lives with her husband and three daughters.

Category: Writing Career

1 thought on “The Myth of Work Life Balance”