Now a days we often search for “Work-Life Balance” but we all know what that really means: “I want to work less!”

This concept comes from a distorted view of life where “work” and “life” are two separate things. That they are actually two things that go against each other, and by getting one you miss out on the other. But truth is, what we are seeking isn’t really balance at all. Balance is boring and nobody wakes up in the morning exited to have a balanced life. A completely balanced life is the death of ambitions, dreams and what makes life worth living.

What we really want is a “satisfying experience of life”.

Satisfaction is what we need to look for, not balance. A professional and personally satisfied life is highly desirable and definitely not easy to achieve but thats because working hard is the necessary pre-factor of satisfaction.
Note that satisfaction is not pleasure, an activity that gives pleasure (Like eating for example) does not extend after the activity itself. What would make you feel more satisfied and better about yourself? Eating 3 cupcakes or working out for 1 hour?

Note that pleasure and satisfaction are two completely different things. The pleasure that may come from eating 3 cupcakes does not extend past the actual activity of eating them – therefore pleasure eating is not a satisfactory activity. Working out, on the other hand may not bring immediate gratification but it will produce a sense of satisfaction afterwords.

Working many hours is not a bad thing as long as you are satisfied with it. I, for example, work more than anybody I know but I’m satisfied with my life, I know that satisfaction comes from hard work and often comes after tremendous stress.

Success requires sacrifice, it is difficult, and thats why is rare.

I have the luck to do something love so much that sometimes I need strength to stop working to have dinner with my family and I used to feel guilty about it but I now came to understand that you can’t have it all, but you also don’t want it all.

Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.

– Confucius

So, if you find yourself counting down the hours of work you do in a day, then you you might need to re-evaluate your work process or your job altogether.

If you need guidance on finding your true purpose here are a couple of resources that has inspired this post and I think will help you big time:

• Off Balance book from Matthew Kelly
• This video from Elle Luna a San Francisco Designer that has found her purpose in usual ways.