Balance is B.S.: How to Have a Work. Life. Blend. - Hardcover

Loehr, Tamara

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1119550408 ISBN 13: 9781119550402

Publisher: Wiley, 2019

Synopsis

Combine the best parts of your personal and professional life to live the life you really want

Balance is B.S. is an unflinching and honest look at the challenges today’s working woman faces in balancing her professional and personal lives. In the United States, women comprise over 40% of household income. Increased gender diversity in the modern business landscape continues to have a positive impact on bottom lines and revenue reports across the economy, and offers significant benefits for ambitious women in the workplace. This increase of women in the workforce does present a serious problem—women are working longer and harder outside of the home, but their workload has not lessened inside of the home. While their career prospects rise, expectations of their family and personal lives remain flat. Women pursue the mythical “work-life” balance, and feel guilty for not reaching it. There is a better way.

This insightful book provides working women with real-world advice, enabling them to blend their personal and professional lives, avoid burning out, and raise expectations of themselves and those around them. Every chapter presents practical exercises to identify values, and focus on what matters most. Following the path laid out by this essential guide, you will learn how to: 

• Blend business and personal lives together without compromising your values
• Adjust expectations of yourself and others around you
• Use practical exercises and effective techniques to combine work, social, family, and parenting lives
• Stop feeling guilty about your work-life balance, and embrace the best parts of both 

Balance is B.S. is an invaluable resource for working women regardless of profession, experience, and status. Author Tamara Loehr draws on her years of entrepreneurial success to share her proven methods of merging work, play, and family to map out and reach the life you actually want to live.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

Women are the primary breadwinners in an increasing number of households, and ever more women hold high-powered, high-earning positions. This is a good thing. More gender equality in the workplace means more opportunities for ambitious women, and, it turns out, better economic performance for the businesses that employ them. But, there's a dark side to this leap in equality that we rarely discuss: although women are doing a greater share of the earning, their share of domestic duties—housekeeping, child-rearing, and so on—isn't undergoing a commensurate decline. This remains true despite the deafening roar of voices encouraging us to strive for "work-life balance."

Balance is B.S. explodes the myth of work-life balance, showing working women that they can have it all, if they're willing to stop giving in to the pressure to do more, more, more. For women, the idea of balance sounds good on the surface, but it too often hides an expectation that we should give our all to everything, all the time. This book shows readers how to stand firm in setting their own expectations, defining the life they'd like to see, and working together with partners, children, employers, and others to achieve the successes they want, without suffering the burnout.

Ambitious women need to embrace a new paradigm that recognizes work-life balance as the trap it is. Instead, Balance is B.S. encourages women to give themselves permission to blend—integrating their work and personal lives in ways that lead to growth in all areas. Woven with coaching exercises and practical tools, this book helps readers identify their values, and align their efforts with the things that matter. Instead of approaching life as a never-ending series of tasks and chores, none of which ever quite get the attention they deserve, blending is about doing things because we want to do them, and freeing ourselves from the guilt of not being all things to all people.

When we pursue our values and align our goals with what's important, we allow ourselves to grow into the people we dream of being, "rising without compromising." Strong women of all ages and walks of life will appreciate the transformative process of working through this book, busting the myth of balance, and discovering that yes, we can have it all.

From the Back Cover

RISE WITHOUT COMPROMISE IN WORK, PERSONAL LIFE, AND BEYOND

Ambitious women face a tremendous amount of pressure. We have the opportunity to pursue high-powered careers, but we're still expected to keep it all "together" at home. The myth of work-life balance tells us that we should be able to juggle all this, but we know that it's impossible to do everything, and there must be a better way. After 20 years of refining the process as a global entrepreneur, Tamara Loehr shows you exactly what that better way looks like, and how you can get there—sharing her experiences about what worked, and what didn't.

Instead of trying to balance the infinite demands of partners, children, co-workers, clients, and everyone else, it's time to give yourself permission to blend. This book will coach you through the process of finding a way to combine work life and family life, so that your every move aligns with your values. Negotiate expectations, boundaries, and solutions with the people around you, so that you can focus your energies on the things that mean the most. You'll find that the life you envision is possible, and that you already have the power to break through the myths that are keeping you from doing great things.

The exercises and tools in this book bring new ideas into crisp focus, walking you through the process of setting effective goals, defining the shape you want your life to take, and bringing others on board with your vision, so you all can rise together. Parenting, career, marriage, friendships, and even a little fun and adventure here and there—read Balance is B.S. to discover how you can bring all of these parts of your life together into one beautiful whole, without becoming burnt out.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1119550408
• ISBN 13: 9781119550402
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240