The Best Advice I Didn't Listen To
Someone once told me, "You should always have a work-life balance." It's one of the pieces of advice I've heard the most. I've never fully believed in that idea.
Some weeks, work needed more of me. Other weeks, life did. No matter what I did, I never felt "balanced."
Why the Split Never Worked for Me
There are seasons when I'm fully immersed in building Ryse & Shyne. There are seasons when my body asks me to slow down. And there are moments when I need to choose myself.
None of them make me less successful.
For years I measured myself against a 50/50 standard that never actually matched how my weeks played out. Building a brand doesn't move in even numbers. Some stretches ask for everything I have. Other stretches ask me to stop and rest. I kept waiting to feel "balanced" and it never came, because I was chasing something that doesn't really exist day to day.
Then I Realized
Maybe balance was never meant to be something you have every single day.
Maybe that's why so many of us feel like we're failing.
That realization changed how I look at my weeks. If I expect balance every single day, I'll feel like I'm behind almost constantly, because life doesn't divide itself evenly on a daily basis. So I stopped measuring myself against that standard.
What I Believe In Now
I don't believe in chasing perfect balance anymore. I believe in paying attention.
- Knowing when to push.
- Knowing when to pause.
- Accepting that those moments won't always happen in equal measure.
Some weeks I'm heads down in the business. Some weeks I need to step back. Neither one is a failure. It's just what that particular week called for.
Balance Isn't Two Perfect Halves
The goal isn't to split my life into perfect halves. The goal is to make sure neither work nor life disappears for too long.
I can come back to both. Again and again. That's what makes it sustainable, I don't have to get it right today. I just have to keep returning.
So Maybe the Advice Wasn't Wrong
It was just incomplete.
Don't chase perfect balance. Build a life you can keep returning to.
That's what I believe in now, and it's made me a lot more forgiving of the weeks that don't look balanced at all.
From our Founder, Felicia Kawilarang
