Cool stuff. My mantra that the only thing lying in the way of you “having it all” is, well, you has just been given a boost by business expert, Cali Williams Yost. Her research mirrors my own experience in working with dozens of companies and hundreds of people around the globe. From Vancouver to Chicago to London to Hong Kong, the only reason why many people don’t “have it all” is simply because they don’t take the time out to pause, reflect, then act on things that matter most. It’s that simple.
The Secret Sauce
Like myself, Cali helps workplaces to become more flexible and gives people the tools and skills they need to manage the fit between their career and personal lives. Along the way she began to study the habits of people that naturally seemed to be able to juggle skillfully the many and various priorities of work and life. These “work+life naturals” simply took a few extra, but crucial, steps beyond what most people took.
What Cali found was that work+life naturals engaged in the following 4 key habits:
1. Work+life naturals actively managed their work and personal responsibilities and goals daily or weekly.
- Problem: only 75% of people surveyed claimed that they did this.
- Why this is important: Need I comment? Thought not…
2. Kept a calendar with all of their personal and work to-do’s in one place.
- Problem: only 40% of people surveyed were found to carry out this key habit.
- Why this is important: This goes a long way to ensuring that whirling vortex of work does not completely subsume your focus.
3. Set aside time daily or weekly to check in with themselves and answer the question, “What do I want?”
- Problem: only 26% of all people surveyed took this extra step.
- Why this is important: It is your actions that will keep you healthy, your career network & job skills up to date, your relationships strong and your personal finances in shape. None of this happens by default.
- Ask yourself: What’s happening at work and in other parts of my life? What to I want more of? What do I want less of?
4. Always make adjustments when they see a mismatch between what they want in work+life and what’s actually happening.
- Problem: only 15% of respondents actually did this.
- Why this is important: Taking small steps along the way to close the gaps between what you want and what’s happening will keep you on track with achieving and experiencing what matters most to you. You will feel more fulfilled at home and work.
The crux of this research is that while many people might manage their responsibilities at work and in their personal lives with intention, most make their everyday choices using an incomplete picture of what they need to accomplish. Fewer still, regularly reflect on what matters most to them on and off the job. Sadly, even fewer consistently take action to close any gaps between what they want and what’s actually happening on and off the job.
The good news is that you really can “have it all” by learning to make what matters most happen everyday…and by adding a few extra habits. The Propel Program can show you the way.
