Early on in my career when someone would say the phrase “Work- Life Balance”, my vision was of this perfect pie chart where 50% of it was color coded for work time and 50% of it was for things outside of work, family, friends, travel and hobbies. Seems reasonable and logical that a perfect 50/50 split was something that could and would be attainable all of the time.
As you can imagine, and may be learning on your own, this is not the reality of the sports and entertainment industry. Not that a 50/50 split of work-life balance is impossible, because there will be many times in your career where it will occur, but rather the focus should be on a healthy balance between your work life and personal life throughout your life and career.
I, like many of you, entered the sports world in ticket sales and was eager to learn, succeed, and grow my career quickly. In short, do whatever it took to reach those goals – even if sacrificed my life outside of the office in order to do so. For the first four years of my career my balance was 90 percent work and 10 percent life which led to four promotions in that timeframe and eventually to a Director title.
Soon after that period of time my life outside of work began to grow and change and my magical work-life balance pie was slowly adjusting. Over the course of the next 4-5 years, I got married, lost my father and had three children. Through the course of those life events, the balance of my “pie” was the complete opposite from the beginning of my career, my outside life took precedence over my work.
As my career and personal life continue to grow and evolve the ebbs and flows of work- life balance are now more in perspective, and the ratios change given the day. The biggest learning is to be present wherever I am. If I am 100% focused on work, be there and vice versa.
At the end of the day, the perfect ratio of work-life balance is a personal preference. Not all of us want to achieve the same ratio. Not all of us are in the same stage of life. What work-life balance looks like for you right now may be very different in a month or year from now and that is okay! Yes, you can achieve a perfect 50/50 split of work-life balance but only for a period of time. There will always be things that pull us in one direction or another. My goal is to be able to step back at the end of my career and in looking holistically, see that balance.