Article September 6, 2004 Issue

WALK THE TALK

By Madelon Miles

'How do I balance work and personal time?" is a question I think about a lot because it's a central issue for me, as well as for many of my clients. As a business consultant and executive coach, I want to be able to walk my talk.

I'm increasingly concerned about the division that is made between work and home—as if the first is almost the drudge, the job that we have to do, and the other is this incredible life of choice. Isn't the real issue in finding balance and fulfillment more about how you choose to view these aspects of your life than about the circumstances in which you find yourself?

During the past ten or fifteen years, I've spent a lot of time reading biographies of great people. If you look at the life of 15th-century painter Leonardo da Vinci, for example, or more recently Bill Lear, who invented the Learjet, what you see is their love for what they do. So I'd like to think the equation is not either/or—work or home—but a question of "Am I doing the work that I'm uniquely talented to do? Am I taking advantage of all the wonderful spiritual qualities in my work life, which are gifts from God and are uniquely combined to make me who I am?" And I think the more we do this, the less stress and the more joy and fulfillment we'll feel.