Have you known leaders or co-workers who, with their Midas touch, easily acquired wealth, property and status? Yet, a few years later you discover they have lost their health and are unable to work, at the same pace, or their marriage has soured. How can you explain this?
The Failure of Success seems like a contradiction, but it happens all too often when leaders and workers channel all of their energies into one or two areas of life and starve other key areas.
Failure at the end of life comes in many forms: debilitating health conditions, losing one’s business, or facing financial ruin. Life lessons often result from consistently making decisions that harm others. Then, there is the pain of being emotionally abandoned by loved ones or experiencing emptiness from a lack of meaning in life.
You can turn success into fulfilment instead. One key is attending to the 5 Most Important Areas of Life. Also, remember – over- or under-investment in any area of life creates predictable blind spots, challenges and obstacles – manifesting either today, or in the future, as a cause of failure.
The 5 Most Important Areas of Life
When thinking about the amount of time you devote to each area, include your roles, goals, activities, and tasks in that area.
Family and home includes all the roles you take on for your family and to maintain your home including supervising your children’s homework, cooking and spending time with your spouse and in-laws.
Career and work refers to your job, plus the time needed to commute, organise and plan your work activities, and for professional education. Reading business journals at home is added necessity. For students, the time spent in school and studying falls under Career.
Health and recreation includes exercise, sleep, hobbies, sports, going to a movie for pleasure, and attending health-related seminars.
Social life and environment contribution. This area includes time with friends, parties and community activities. As people evolve, they naturally seek out opportunities to make bigger social and environmental contributions.
Spiritual life may mean attending religious services as well as practicing yoga or meditation. Again, as people develop inner powers, they begin to see how their talents and work experience can be used to support greater causes.
Synchronised Time Management
You have 24 hours in a day and 168 hours in a week. The best way to balance the 5 Most Important Areas of Life is through Synchronised Time Management. Mothers do this naturally – feeding the baby, helping with their child’s homework, cooking and talking on the phone to relatives while the clothes are in the washing machine. One of the easiest ways to accommodate all areas of life is by analysing where and how tasks can naturally be combined. For example, a family can come along on a business trip, and visit a sacred shrine. This is an easy way to combine Career and Work with Family and Home as well as Spiritual Life.
Charting Your Life
Analyse your 5 Most Important Areas of Life based on how many hours and what percentage of your week you spend in each area by filling in the chart [There are 168 hours per week].
| Description | Time Allocations |
|---|---|
| Home and Family | ____ hours = ____ % |
| Career and Work | ____ hours = ____ % |
| Social and Environmental Contribution | ____ hours = ____ % |
| Health and Recreation | ____ hours = ____ % |
| Spirituality | ____ hours = ____ % |
Analyse Your Results
Determine how to strike the right balance between all of these vital activities – and, plan your balanced life and destiny.
Spot an error in this article? A typo maybe? Or an incorrect source? Let us know!