A Balanced Approach to Success
By Gary Gzik
It’s amazing how a simple thing like a birthday makes you take stock in your life. Seems the older the birthday, the more reflection one has. And so with another passing birthday I too find myself taking stock of my life. Fortunate for me I was surrounded by friends and family. There is always a strong correlation to business success with family/personal success. This reminded me of a quote from Pat Riley, a very successful coach in the NBA. He said “Sustain a family life for a long period of time and you can sustain success for a long period of time. First things first. If your life is in order you can do whatever you want.”
It’s hard to imagine any leader being truly successful without having that strong balance in life; the support and enjoyment of family and friends. As a leader to be truly successful, you have to keep an eye on both areas of life so that the joys can be shared across the two areas. Happiness and confidence comes from balance. If either work or family pressures get so great that the balance gets thrown off, then extra energy is used to try and maintain the sense of equilibrium. In essence, if not careful, leaders can fall into their own personal firefighting mode. These actions can take your eye off the goal of a shared balance thus impacting your ability to see solutions clearly.
Who knows, these comments might only be the ranting of a man in a mid life crisis. But it seems the more success I have in life, is when I am taking the time to enjoy the success with my family, my friends and my team mates. I get the confidence and clarity to take on new opportunities when I am excited about tomorrow versus fighting with tomorrow. And isn’t that really what balance gives us?
No matter how great a leaders’ success is, I believe that they are still missing something great in their life when they are working without the benefit of close relationships.
Make it a goal of yours to do something each day to secure that balance in both your professional and personal success.
For more ideas on achieving leadership and personal growth balance, please contact Gary Gzik at ggzik@bizxcel.com.
Gary Gzik is the CEO of BizXcel and has been a consultant for businesses for over 20 years. He has worked with hundreds of organizations and more than 10 000 individuals in areas of leadership development, effective communication skills, strategic planning, presentation skills, team building, customer service and personal development.
