We often, maybe even mostly,

let our schedule schedule itself, ignoring the fact that time, not money,
is our only true leadership asset. Tom Peters. So, who's Tom Peters? Tom
Peters is a leadership guru who's
known for In Search Of Excellence and also Brand You. Year ago, you
know, he hit, hit upon the idea that we are each
our own individual brand. And that brand is what defines us as
we move forward with our careers. He continues to write and
he continues to blog on leadership. What is the one resource
you can never have more of? Did you say time? So, way to go, right on.
We cannot create time. There are only 24 hours in a day,
7 days in a week, 365 days in a year. And so it's important that you
spend your
time in the most beneficial way possible. And by beneficial,
I really mean beneficial to you. Spend your time in the way that's gonna
bring you what you want from your life. It is time to talk about
work-life balance. In fact, if you're ready. I'm gonna share with you the
secret
formula to work-life balance, so listen carefully. The formula is,
the formula is what you make it. I cannot tell you exactly how many
hours
to work and how many hours to play, or spend with your family. It's a
personal decision. It's, it depends on your values,
and it changes. When I was brand new in the workforce,
I was eager to work and to learn. And to get ahead, I worked many
hours. My coworkers were my friends anyway. We were all there
together,
new out of college. And we went out. When we weren't working, we
went out
after hours, so I was at work 24, 7. There have been times in my life
where,
although I enjoyed my work, it was more important for me to spend time
with my
family and friends away from the office. There have been times where
I worked 70-hour weeks. And that was completely happy doing that.
And there have times when
I worked 40-hour weeks and I was completely happy doing that. The key
was that my work life fit
my definition of work-life balance. And so, it's up to you to decide what
your definition of work-life balance is. And then to manage your work
and
your life in a way so that most of the time you achieve
your work-life balance and know it's gonna change, and
know that, that is okay. You've got more control
over this than you think. Remember in our previous
module we talked about Sam? And he wound up staying late
on a Friday evening because he didn't pay attention to doing his work
at the right time, in the right order. And he didn't have a plan. So if
working late on a Friday evening
goes against his idea of work-life balance, then he was
probably not very happy. But he did have a bit of
control over this situation. And I'm not promising you that
you will never be asked to work more hours than you want. And I'm not
promising you that you
will never have to work late, or to work a weekend. But if you do not
think
about what you want, you do not know how to put
yourself in the right situations. You teach people how to treat you. So
here's a story that's gonna
help illustrate this point. A client of mine was unhappy because her boss
would text her 24
hours a day, seven days a week. And she felt, you know,
like he was being way too demanding. And she was tired and she was
stressed. And if she heard a text come in
at 2 a.m and she was sleeping, she would wake up and
she would reply to it. And I asked her about her job description
and about the expectations that had been set when she came, what was
mapped out for
her when she started. And I asked, does everyone in
the office answer your boss 24, 7? And she said that she had always
done this from the very first day because she wanted to make
a good impression on him. Sure, you know, some people do
expect you to answer them 24, 7. But sometimes you're the one setting
the example by being available 24, 7, and that's exactly what
my client had done. And then she became afraid to change
the nature of her communications relationship with her manager. And
she had taught him that
she would be on call 24, 7. You teach people how to treat you and
unless otherwise specified in your job description, it's okay
to set some boundaries.