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Embrace Work-Life Imbalance
by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic | 9:00 AM February 12, 2013
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Why is everybody so concerned about work-life balance?

According to one urban legend, based on 1950s pop psychology*, workaholics are greedy
and selfish people who are bound to die from a heart attack.
Not really. As the great David Ogilvy once said: "Men die of boredom, psychological
conflict, and disease. They do not die of hard work." This is especially true if your work is
meaningful.
Most of the studies on the harmful effects of excessive work rely on subjective
evaluations of work "overload." They fail to disentangle respondents' beliefs and
emotions about work. If something bores you, it will surely seem tedious. When you hate
your job, you will register any amount of work as excessive it's like forcing someone to
eat a big plate of food they dislike, then asking if they had enough of it.
Overworking is really only possible if you are not having fun at work. By the same token,
any amount of work will be dull if you are not engaged, or if you find your work
unfulfilling.
Maybe it's time to redefine the work-life balance or at least stop thinking about it. Here
are some considerations:
Hard work may be your most important career weapon. Indeed, once you are smartenough or qualified to do a job, only hard work will distinguish you from everyone else.
Workaholics tend to have higher social status in every society, including laidback cultures
like those found in the Caribbean, Mediterranean, or South America. Every significant
achievement in civilization (from art to science to sport) is the result of people who
worked a lot harder than everyone else, and also happened to be utterly unconcerned
about maintaining work-life balance. Exceptional achievers live longer, and they pretty
much work until their death. Unsurprisingly, the 10 most workaholic nations in the world
account for most of the world's GDP.
Engagement is the difference between the bright and the dark side of workaholism. Put
simply, a little bit of meaningless work is a lot worse for you than a great deal of
meaningful work. Work is just like a relationship: Spending one week on a job you hate is
as dreadful as spending a week with a person you don't like. But when you find the right
job, or the right person, no amount of time is enough. Do what you love and you will love
what you do, which will also make you love working harder and longer. And if you don't
love what you are doing right now, you should try something else it is never too late
for a career change.
Technology has not ruined your work-life balance, it has simply exposed how boring your
work and your life used to be. Did you ever try to figure out why it is so hard to stop

checking your smartphone, even when you are having dinner with a friend you haven't
seen in ages, celebrating your anniversary, watching a movie, or out on a first date? It's
really quite simple: None of those things are as interesting as the constant hum of your
e-mail, Facebook, or Twitter account. Reality is over-rated, especially compared to
cyberspace. Technology has not only eliminated the boundaries between work and life,
but also improved both areas.
People who have jobs, rather than careers, worry about work-life balance because they
are unable to have fun at work. If you are lucky enough to have a career as opposed to
a job then you should embrace the work-life imbalance. A career provides a higher
sense of purpose; a job provides an income. A job pays for what you do; a career pays for
what you love. If you are always counting the number of hours you work (e.g., in a day,
week, or month) you probably have a job rather than a career. Conversely, the more
elusive the boundaries between your work and life, the more successful you probably are
in both. A true career isn't a 9-5 endeavor. If you are having fun working, you will almost
certainly keep working. Your career success depends on eliminating the division between
work and play. Who cares about work-life balance when you can have work-life fusion?
Complaining about your poor work-life balance is a self-indulgent act. The belief that our
ultimate aim in life is to feel good makes no evolutionary sense. It stems from a distorted
interpretation of positive psychology, which, in fact, foments self-improvement and
growth rather than narcissistic self-indulgence. This misinterpretation explains why so
many people in the industrialized Western world seek attention by complaining about
their poor work-life balance. It may also explain the recent rise of the East vis--vis the
West you will not see many people in Japan, China, or Singapore complain about their
poor work-life, even though they often work a lot harder. Unemployment and stagnation
are in part the result of prioritizing leisure and pleasure over work.
In short, the problem is not your inability to switch off, but to switch on. This is rooted in
the fact that too few people work in careers they enjoy. The only way to be truly
successful is to follow your passions, find your mission, and learn how to embrace the
work-life imbalance.
*Friedman, M.; Rosenman, R. (1959). "Association of specific overt behaviour pattern with
blood and cardiovascular findings." Journal of the American Medical Association (169):