Home you vs. business you
I recently started working out with a new personal trainer in a bid to shift some kilos. My colleagues are already bored of hearing me moan about wanting to eat something I’m not ‘allowed’ or how much my quads happen to be hurting today, but I am a Pom, and I do whinge.
New trainer Sam tells me the secret to my success is to apply the determination, drive and results-based approach I have in my working life, to my weight loss. Simple eh? If only.
It’s funny though isn’t it? Some of the most successful businesspeople I know apply none of their admirable work qualities to their personal life. They’ll be organised to the point of OCD at work, but their homes are a mess. They’ll take no prisoners in the boardroom, but they’re an absolute pushover with their kids.
I for one am absolutely pedantic about grammar and punctuation at work (you’d hope so, wouldn’t you?), but in my personal emails I often type everything (God forbid!) in lower case. It’s like a kind of rebellion.
I’m not sure why we’re so different at home and at work, but sometimes it wouldn’t hurt to drag the positive apsects of our work personailty into our home personality, and vice versa.
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I think everyone tries so hard to create a perfect work/life balance and separate their work life from their home life that it becomes a case of having two separate personalities! However, I think your personal trainer is right Jen. I recently read a great article (on this site actually) where a psychologist said that by applying the same behaviours to work as we do in sport (eg the drive and determination to thwart our competition) we can achieve great success in business! Here here! http://www.dynamicbusiness.com.au/articles/articles-growth/how-to-succeed-in-business-by-applying-sports-behaviours3312.html
I hear you and for me, there’s 3 of us in my head: the ambitious manager at work, the corporate wife for the hubby’s work stuff and the loving wife at home – the one that’s loyal, supporting and a good cook. Oprah recently interviewed Michelle Obama on her new life and she sums it up pretty well: just aim to be the best you that you can be. At work or at home. Simple…but very true.