By: Faizan Haq, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher, Your Bliss Magazine; President & CEO, Manage Your Business LLC

The first question that we must ask ourselves is not what to do, but why to do something.  Why business or work?  What and who I am?  How is family connected to me?  As soon as we talk about a balancing act between or among entities, we are admitting that these are separate areas that have boundaries.  What comes to our mind are lines drawn between states and countries.  This sense of separation and conflict puts pressure on us to make hard choices.  

I propose to revisit the connections before we indulge in the unending balancing act. Human beings are not gears of moving machines that can separate or park themselves on a shelf to preserve their wear and tear.  We are organic beings who are mentally engaged and emotionally vested.  In this context, let's reexamine the demand of balancing among the three components of our lives; self, family and friends, work and business.  

We work or do business to sustain a standard of living for us and provide for our families.  There is an amazing satisfaction that brings peace to ‘self’ and adds to your self worth.  Seeing your family happy, fed, sheltered, and protected energizes you to go to work or seize business opportunities.  The interactions with colleagues at work, with whom you spend sometimes more wake hours than your own family members, help you in your self growth and groom you to realize your true potential.  

The case I am making here is that the balancing act is not the right term.  The more important skill is traveling seamlessly from one junture to another while keeping in your view the purpose of your life.  More clearly, your ‘self’ is an inseparable part of your family.  Your work or business is a direction of your ‘self’ in the making.  Instead of dividing your ‘self’ in bits and pieces, unite your ‘self’ in one being, who brings a genuine and comprehensive being to all the meeting places that life offers.  Life is like a tree that grows out of one root, spreading from one stem to blossoming in many branches, leaves, flowers, and fruit. And it is always capable of sheltering one or two strangers under its shadow.