People have told me that you must separate your professional/work life from your personal/home life. I want people to tell me how to do that.
I’ve noticed that my feelings from either one would bleed into the other… easily… both positive and negative. If I have a frustrating day at work, it affects my personal life. And conversely, if I have an excellent weekend, then my work week starts out pretty good.
This should be expected, not so. We only have one life, and we all don’t have multiple personalities that allow us to compartmentalise our lives so that it’s separate.
I believe that many people give that advice to separate your work-home lives because they don’t know what else to say, and that comes easy. I’m pretty sure they don’t know how to do that either.
Don’t get me started on work/life balance, as if work isn’t part of your life. People have built entire business models on that premise and continue to push it.
We need to learn how to determine what is really important in our lives so that we can give the proper focus on that and prioritise as required. If work is important, then do that; if the family is, then do that. If they’re both important, then you set boundaries by which you’re getting both done, with the level of focus and attention they both deserve.
I’m saying all this as though I do this regularly and am really good at it, but I suck royally at it in reality. But I continue to reevaluate and review if what I’m doing is what is important to me. I’ll get better at it.
For now, I try to stay mindful of how I feel in the present moment. I do this so that my emotions don’t get in the way of my actions. Which I suck royally at as well, but I do try.