#229: Curating Your Life: How to End the Struggle for Work-Life Balance

On today’s show, Gail Golden, MBA, Ph.D. and author of "Curating Your Life", and I, get into a discussion about energy management versus time management, and why there is no such thing as work-life balance. Knowing we have 168 hours in which to live our lives each week, this episode focuses less on the fallacy of “making more time” and instead reframes the conversation around how you choose to spend that time, why you should embrace mediocrity in the things that don’t serve you and how to cut to the quick of long-term goal planning through three basic questions:

1.) Are you having fun and enjoying what you’re doing?
2.) Are you making the impact you want?
3.) Are you creating more wealth and value in your business?

After this episode, you’ll be able to start the process of identifying what you eventually want out of your business and your life, re-curating your current situation, identifying how you should spend your time, and how to intentionally create the business and the life that you want. Through the practical exercises she has for you as well as her no-nonsense attitude, you will be able to start this journey of professional (and personal) self-discovery, which will lead you to a more intentional life.

The most important takeaway from this episode is the fact that how you spend your time will directly impact what you get from your business and your life.

What You Will Learn In Today's Podcast Interview

Why Gail says work-life balance is a fallacy and time management is a bullshit concept.
When to embrace mediocrity for mastery elsewhere.
The ways your energy could be better spent, using a simple stove metaphor.
How to say no without offending people.
The three questions everyone needs to ask themselves before making drastic changes.
How to recognize it’s time to adjust your exhibit and update what your statement pieces to say about you, your beliefs and values, and your legacy.
When you should feel shame versus guilt and how to kindly tell yourself to let it go (or grow up).
The purpose in taking breaks and embracing the rejuvenating powers of downtime to keep your energy high for the tasks that matter most to you.
What you could do with 10 employees you can’t with 1,000, therefore you need to adjust your approach and learn to farm out some of your hats.
Why “you can do anything if you want it badly enough” is a destructive myth and what a healthier approach is to goal fulfillment.

Are You Growing The Value of Your Business

Take The 2-Minute Assessment To Get Your Intentional Growth Score™ And 1-Page Vision Board.

Are your company's current initiatives intentionally designed to increase the value of the business?
Do you know what you want from your business long term and why?
Do you know what your company is worth?
Do you know the differences between Management, Family Transitions, PE Firms, ESOPs and Strategic Buyers?
Does the business have a written strategic plan on how to achieve the desired normalized EBITDA and valuation?

About the Guest:

Gail Golden, MBA, Ph.D., helps leaders hit peak performance by drawing on her unique background as a licensed psychologist and an MBA-holding entrepreneur. She is the Principal of Gail Golden Consulting, an international network of senior management psychologists and consultants. Gail’s new book, Curating Your Life, shares what she’s learned from coaching hundreds of leaders on how to direct their energy toward identifying and accomplishing their most important goals. She has been quoted in Fast Company, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Crain’s Chicago Business, The Chicago Tribune, and numerous other publications

Quotes:

36:07 - “If it’s recharging my batteries, if it’s giving me some kind of reprieve, don’t feel guilty about that.” – Gail Golden

39:37 - “Sometimes people think about it in terms of legacy. How do I want to be remembered?” ”– Gail Golden

43:10 - “Sometimes I think you have to do experiments. You have to try stuff. Goodness knows entrepreneurs are good at that. They’re risk-takers. They’ll try it out.”– Gail Golden

44:55 - “He said to me, ‘Gail, there will be people who will not hire you because you’re Jewish. There will be people who will not hire you because you’re a female. There will be people who will not hire you because you’re fifty years old. Those are stupid people and you do not want to work for them.” – Gail Golden

47:02 - “Re-curation often involves loss and loss involves pain.” – Gail Golden

48:24 - “I had a choice, that I could be bored or I could be scared and I chose scared and that reassured me because to me boredom is worse than fear.” – Gail Golden

55:43 - “Intentional means I’m very clear about the decision I’m making and why I’m making it.” – Gail Golden

56:43 - “If you’ve got a service that can be helpful for other people and you don’t make yourself easy to find, that’s unethical.” – Gail Golden