Your job or business IS NOT your life!

Simple question – who are you? Think about that for a moment. Do you define yourself as Mr./Ms. Smith who works at ABC Company? Does your job title, position, automobile or home location define who you are? Better yet, think of it this way. If the job, car and home were all gone, who would you be then?

All too often in business there is an unhealthy merging of our personal identity with what we do as a profession (this is not a discussion of branding were you may in fact infuse your identity with your product). The problem with attaching your personal identity to your job is that if you lose your job, what do you do then?

As a result of working in corporate America for 13 years, I’ve seen countless individuals devote all of their heart, mind and soul to their profession at the expense of destroying family/personal relationships. They would be quick to attend the after-work event but never had time to attend their children’s baseball games. They could spend an entire day in a horribly boring meeting but never find the time to listen to their spouse at home.

The purpose of this post isn’t to make you feel guilty, but rather to make you think about what’s really important in life.

This is what I want you to do. Take some time to identify who you are. No, not the corporate “you” that everyone sees each day but the real you. Next, identify what’s really important in your life. Lastly, decide to make one change today that will create greater balance in your life.

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