James Michener and the Art of Work Life Balance

Ever been asked for your definition or your philosophy on work life balance?  Everybody seems to have a different take; but it usually has to do with really maximizing your personal time, and at the same time delivering on the work that has to be done for your employer.

I have thought a lot about this over the years, and have always sort of struggled… because to me, work life balance isn’t a separation of activities – its more of a way you conduct your life, regardless of what you are doing.

Recently I stumbled on a quote from James Michener whom I can honestly say has to be one of the best writers ever – certainly in my top 4 or so –  wow can that guy tell a story!  Hawaii, Centennial…  classics!  This quote absolutely stuck with me – and I think fits the best with how I would define work life balance.

“The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion.  He hardly knows which is which.  He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing.  To him he’s always doing both.”  – James A. Michener

How do you define work life balance?    Mine?  I hardly know which is which – you decide which I am doing…

 

A little bit more on James Michener…
His novel “Tales of the South Pacific” won the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Michener studied and taught (1936 – 1941) at Colorado State College of Education (now the University of Northern Colorado) before leaving for Harvard, World War II, and a prestigious and prolific writing career. He came back to Colorado to research “Centennial,” his novel about a fictional Colorado town that eventually spawned a 26-part television miniseries. Michener returned to Greeley for the last time in 1972 for the dedication ceremony of UNC’s James A. Michener Library.

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