Mastering the Work-Life Balance
In the “Outside Work” series, professionals reveal their best antidotes to work stress. Read the posts here, and then write your own (use #OutsideWork in the piece).
Achieving a balance between work-and-life is a key part of my-life. In this Post, I write about the ways which I wind-down from work activities to achieve this balance whilst maximising my career development opportunities. In each section I outline the specific antidotes before describing how it benefits me.
Family-Time
Winding down in different forms I find to be vital to achieving complete relaxation. My family-time is just one of these. On the 27th March 2016, I am due to marry my partner of six years. In building our relationship it has been vital that we take time-out of our schedules to do things together. We tend to enjoy the cinema, walks, dining out and relaxing in-front of a film. Cooking is another one of our hobbies with (luckily) us both been quite good chefs. We encourage each other to succeed and have a number of side-projects in the pipeline which is always exciting as something different to work-on.
My parents are quite the opposite and are massively risk averse. For me, it is about controlling what they know about my life. Yet greater still, it is about the de-stressing after a long week. Them being the ear to listen
The Benefits: Having that getaway from work-life is essential to me and spending that time with my partner is my way of doing this. We talk about our current situations, our future and generally de-stress on a regular basis. I find that family-time provides the sounding board for potential new challenges.
Recommendations: Take some time out with your loved ones this week. Make sure to have a different conversation to the norm with them. Talk about your plans. Your ambitions. Ask for their opinions and advice. Then choose whether to heed it.
Exercise
I was about to write ‘I used to be…’ but the reality is that I still am, a high performer when it comes to sport. Back in 2011 I started running after years of focusing on the weights. I used to de-stress after work by hitting the bench-press machine and did used to be pretty well progressed with it. Yet now, I am more about the finer elements of exercise… running cycling, swimming. All at distances including 5km, 10km, Half Marathon, Marathon, Sprint Triathlon and Half Ironman (my last challenge).
Running: I find running to be an amazing exercise to simply get away from anything and everything. A very minimalist exercise with only a real requirement for well fitted trainers and some general training gear. Yet I find listening to high tempo music whilst pounding the concrete/trails as offering an escape. Interestingly, the more rain the better! There is nothing more satisfying than knowing that you are likely the only one out there when running in the rain.
Cycling: Cycling I find to be in a similar field to running. I tend to cycle only when the conditions are right (I use a road-bike with clip-on peddles). Yet I find very little more satisfying than tackling Sheffield on my Mekk Pinerolo. Being built across seven valleys, hills are in abundance in Sheffield. Throw into the mix that I live around 5 miles from the Peak District and you have an exciting backdrop on your hands. I find very little more relaxing for the mind that taking two to three hours out for a nice warm days cycle through our countryside.
Intervals: Now intervals are not for the faint hearted. I joined Sheffield Running Club in 2013 and became immediately engrained in their Thursday ‘Sprint Interval’ sessions. Led by former athlete David Oldfield, the Run Club takes things to the next level. Relaxing? Hardly! De-Stressing? No-Doubt! From 1000m sprints followed by time-trials to 8000m interval sprints, Dave has us kept on our toes.
The Benefits: Exercise has undoubted benefits yet many of us continue to see it slip under pressures at work and home. I find it to actually provide me with more energy. On my former rest months after a long-race I have found myself tiring easy. It affects all aspects of life. Work, Relationships, Family. Overall, exercise offers that escape whatever it is you choose to do
Recommendations: Think about how you could exercise more. All it takes is 15 minutes. Do some research as to what you might enjoy. If you already exercise, look at how you could do more. What could make you better and stronger? Are there any competitions you could train for? Any new challenges?
Tip: If you think that you cannot do it due to your current situation, think about this… until I was 19 I was unfit. I weighed in at around 270 pounds, had rarely seen a gym and had hit a routine of no exercise. In the space of a year this reduced to 190 pounds. Six months after starting running I ran a 45 minute 10km. Less than a year later after that I ran a 3:43 Marathon (whilst injured! I would of achieved a sub-3:30 with no injury). A year later I ran a 1:32 Half Marathon. Six months later I did a 6 hour Half Ironman… whatever you want to achieve is possible with Grit!
Note: The above image is of my Half Ironman followed by Great North Run, all within less than 1 week!
Reading
My parents have an odd-perception that I hate reading… yet I love it! I am currently reading Peter Diamandis’ ‘Bold’ which is a book about Radical Innovation, a topic of high interest. Yet I read a whole manner of books. I have recently finished Search Inside Yourself (Chade Meng Tan), The School of Greatness (Lewis Howes) and am side reading The Four Hour Body (Tim Ferriss). I find reading as an opportunity to broaden the mind. Especially those tech focused books such as ‘Bold’.
The Benefits: Reading opens the mind to new knowledge and experiences. It creates an ability to learn about new things whether related to your field of expertise or not. It does not necessarily mean picking up a book, but reading credible online sources is also a great way to accumulate knowledge.
Recommendations: When was the last time you picked up a non-fiction book? Think about the topics that interest you or that you keen to develop further. Take a look at the Amazon best sellers list or even listen to some podcasts (such as Lewis Howes and Tim Ferriss) for upcoming book releases. Share yours findings!
Meditation & Mindfulness
Headspace is meditation made simple. A well structured and comprehensive resource of meditative exercises led by Andy Puddicombe. I encountered Headspace after numerous professionals and bloggers, including those of (and interviewed by) Lewis Howes and Tim Ferriss. Initially thought of as ‘just a fad’, I downloaded the trial ten days and have not looked back since.
The Benefits: HeadSpace brings a sense of calm and relaxation to my life. A fresh mind. I meditate for 15 minutes per day, sometimes more. More than anything, the key benefit has been the time-out away from everything. I have found the practices to open my mind up to new ways of thinking and even new ideas. In the last month, I did stop focusing as much on HeadSpace and witnessed an increased level of agitation and frustration… this ‘fad’ definitely works for me!
Start-Ups Projects
Not many people know this about me, but I have a number of early-stage start-ups, alongside my partner, bubbling away in the background. These start-ups offer a light relief away from the Corporate World. Something of an opportunity to build something from the ground up.
Fyyt: I am a fitness fanatic… I love running, football and cycling. I am trained to run long distances (5km, 10km, Half Marathon, Marathon, Sprint Triathlon & Half Ironman distances thus far). Yet in the Winter months I found myself frustrated. Fyyt was born out of this severe frustration, a gap in the market and an MBA Project. Fyyt, under the previous brand of ‘Fitifi’ soon became a finalist within the Manchester Business School Venture Further competition. In the same year, it was the winner of the What Next Conference best business pitch.
Fyyt is in the early-stage of start-up. The value proposition is to provide a results-driven, on-demand fitness service delivering information, professional coaching, sessions and training at your convenience. However, this is through a technologically advanced platform, supported by a widespread network of trainers. There is a uniqueness to the model which will be disclosed at a later stage of development as will specific ‘campaigns’.
Other Start-Up Projects: Since starting (and finishing) my MBA and I guess commencing all of #MySideHustle, I have witness a plethora of ideas coming to mind. I see the World differently. I see problems and ways to solve them rather than simply accepting things as the way they. Example: I was in the barbers on Saturday and found myself starting at the plug-socket. Why do we need them? They tie us down to a wall and location. Why can hair-dryers not come with a solar panel on-top? An absurd question as there are plenty of reasons why this is the case, yet plenty of thought provoking opportunities.
The Benefits: Quite a simple one here… looking at other projects opens your eyes to new potential opportunities. New skills which you can develop. New ways of working! New projects away from your traditional rigours and stresses. Whilst Fyyt is far from a success story, it has enabled a focusing of my time on something I am highly interested in and that can make a massive benefit to peoples lives. Fyyt has received commendations by many working professionals, doctors and athletes… having this ‘belief’ just provides a motivation to keep on going. It keeps the mind busy, stimulated and helps to develop new skills.
Recommendations: What are you passionate about? Can you leverage your skills in an additional area to develop a new stream of interest? Creating options and choices are key here. If you only have one option and that option begins to disinterest you, you will naturally become stressed. Consider other things you enjoy and take action!
About Stephen
Stephen Baines is a Senior Management Consultant and MBA currently working for Hewlett-Packard Enterprise and pursuing a number of external entrepreneurial ventures. The views within this post are explicitly those of Stephen and have no representation of any organisation Stephen represents. If you wish to contact Stephen, please contact him via LinkedIn or his Twitter handle (@baines1986).
Read more about Stephen at Stephen’s personal website
You may repost elements of this article on the proviso that you include the following (including the links): “This article originally appeared on the LinkedIn profile of Stephen Baines. Follow @baines1986 or visitwww.stephenjbaines.com for more articles like this”.
#Mindfulness #OutsideWork #WorkLifeBalance
