A simple 5-step Work-Life Integration process for ambitious people, living an unbalanced life.

If your calendar predicted your future, would you like what it shows?  

In today's episode we'll walk through a clear, 5-step work-life integration system designed to turn values and your future self visions into the life you live daily. Instead of chasing someone else’s idea of balance, we strip away borrowed goals and define a good life in your words, for this season, starting now.  

It's a realignment process.  

We create a match between what you want in life and what you do every day.  

If this resonated, subscribe, share with one person who’ll keep you accountable, and leave a quick review to help more people build a life they love.  

Transcript

Introducing Work Life Integration

Prepare With Honest Self Reflection

Step 1: Define What Matters

Step 2: Define Success Your Way

Step 3: Match Actions To Ambition

Step 4: Put It On The Calendar

Step 5: Reflect And Adjust

The Fulfillment Formula

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Hello and welcome back to another episode of Change Wired Podcast. My name is Angela Sharina. I'm your host, your partner in change, executive, health, high performance, transformation coach, culture, transformation consultant, and just someone who is really passionate about unlocking, growing, using more of our human potential, and specifically about building the ecosystem for more of our human potential to grow and sprout and develop at scale. And today, by the end of today's podcast, guys, I'm gonna share with you one of the I think simplest, but also fundamental and so often overlooked tools to actually build the life that you absolutely love living. Like it all starts there. If you don't use this tool, this system, I can guarantee you, you're not gonna get to the vision of self of life or the impact you want to create. You're not gonna get there unless you use this approach. I hear it from every single leader that I admire. I listen to a lot of interviews, and all of them use this system. Not all of them talk about that or more conscious about that, but all of them, we all leaving this system. And it's better if you create it with conscious awareness, with intention, so you are more in control of where you and your life, and again the impact in the world, where all those end up. It all starts with this system. And the system is the work-life integration system. It has five steps, and I teach it to almost all the leaders and entrepreneurs and founders at all the workshops and events. Yesterday I led a workshop at uh the biggest tech conference in South Africa. It happens every year, and this is the third year that I um was presenting there. And at almost every workshop, I try to introduce this framework because every time I get new people in the audience, and it's a mix of younger people and older people. But almost all of them, almost all of my clients, when we are in the period of transition or we are trying to improve, to change, to create something new that we don't have, almost all of us need to use the system to reflect on it, to realign, to get more effective at getting where we want. So the system is very simple, it has five steps, and you can do it probably in 20-30 minutes, maybe even less, depending on how well you use this kind of structure already. And the only thing you need is some sort of calendar that you use that reflects, some sort of planner that reflects what you do in your day and what you plan to do next month, uh, next quarter, or next year. So five steps, the work life integration system that actually works. And it's not about the it's not about creating the perfectly balanced life or the one you see in glossy magazines, or the one that somebody else thinks everyone should be leaving. It's not about that, it's about the life that feels good to you, that keeps your soul content. It's and again, all you need is a calendar and a bit of unfiltered honesty. What I mean by that is if you want something, say you want it, no matter what it is, and if you want that, be ready to commit your calendar and your resources to it. And also realize that there is a lot of noise happening in our world, and we humans are social creatures. So sometimes what you think you want isn't actually yours. It's not something you really want, it's something that somebody else, maybe your parents, maybe your peers, think is cool to have. So before you jump into this exercise, I do recommend to do some reflection on what is I actually want from my life? Not because somebody else told me or the world thinks it's a great idea to have that. But me, like what do I want from my life? What's my ideal life, at least for now, looks like in my head, in my vision? What it is that I want to create more of and less of. So first reflect on that. And then step number one of the work-life integration system that I teach, define what matters to you. And this reflection will already jumpstart this process. Specifically, define areas that make your life feel full right now, not in some someday future, but right now. For me, those buckets, those areas where I need to invest my time and energy are meaningful work, is kind of one of my top priorities, health, relationships, learning, and fun. So those are the areas that for my life to feel full and complete, for me to be happy with my life, I need to invest in those areas consistently. Now, you can have more areas of meaning, of fulfillment, or buckets of fulfillment as I call them. You can have less of them, you can have them more detailed, more specific, or less specific. And maybe one of your buckets is singing or baking or anything. So if it needs to be in your life for your life to feel complete, put it there. Don't be embarrassed, ashamed, or thinking it's not a good idea because somebody else doesn't think so. Like what it is you want to be fulfilled, content, and yes, happy. Number two, step number two, define what success looks like to you. Not to me, not the world, not your mom and dad, not your spouse, not your kids. What success looks like to you? What would good life look like in each area today, this week, this month? Write it down, make it visible, make it as detailed or as simple as it needs to be for you to for it to guide you to make the right kind of choices and set the right kind of priorities every day. And my example is what success looks like for me. Health, fit, strong, full of energy, no pain, limitless. That's the feeling. You know, health for me is always more like a feeling. It's not avoiding diseases, which isn't really a great goal to pursue because it's more negative, and we are not inspired or motivated to pursue negative things. Relationships, few key relationships, fulfilling, satisfying, deep, and honest. I don't like a lot of people in my life, but I like to have the people who matter and who feel my life who make my life feel complete. And I like to show up for those people, and I'd like those people to show up for me. So that's what matters for me in relationships. I don't need crowds, I need few key people. Learning, a top expert in my field. Like I want to feel like a top expert in my field, fun and adventure. The ideal future is to just dedicate time to it, explore and discover, try new things, say yes to unexpected on a regular basis. And then for my work, impacting a lot of people, helping a lot of people to unlock more of their potential, and feeling that because of me, the world is better in some way. And I want to build and grow more and more of that. So, again, so we all of us have a better chance, a better shot at growing and using more of our potential. So that's my vision of success in the areas that matter to me. Again, yours might be slightly or a lot different. We all value different things, guys, and that's okay. Number three, identify specific actions that you will take consistently. And here, we humans that have this optimism bias, we think that things will take less time and effort. So we have that. And knowing that, I always these days try to adjust my expectations and expectations of other people, people I work with, right? Different visions require different actions. Everything has a matching cost. You can't wish to be one of the world's greatest, let's say, athlete and think that amateur moves and spending just a little bit of time here and there will get you there. If you want to be extraordinary, or even the best, or one of the best, like make sure that you expect to put the effort that matches this aspiration. Match the price with the prize. And very often we get frustrated with ourselves for no good reason. We just didn't adjust our expectations. Extraordinary life will require extra effort. Schedule. And by the way, you don't need to be extraordinary in everything at all. Like if you like baking and just want to have it as a hobby and do a few things here and there, that's totally fine. Or if you just like to feel good in your body, not the being on the cover of magazines, that's also a totally good aspiration. And if maybe your work isn't your top priority, that's also really good to have a good job that gives you the impact, the income you want. All of it matters in the context of your life, of your aspirations, and what it means for you to live a good life. Now, step number four, schedule time. Nothing meaningful manifests without spending time and effort on it. Like you can't manifest things. Even to bake a cake, you need to dedicate resources and time and energy, right? To bake, quote unquote, bake anything in life. That's the same idea. You can't expect the result without putting in the work. Even to buy a purse or a book, you need to spend some time choosing it. Some time and effort always has to be there. And that is where your calendar is such a great judge of what you have, where you're gonna be, and what you're gonna achieve and create. You can't have, let's say, quality in your relationships, or quality in learning, or you can't have an adventurous life if you spend zero time on adventures. Like you might think, oh, I'm an adventurous person. Well, when did the last time you go for an adventure and said yes to unexpected things? That's what adventurous people do, right? So schedule time for those areas of improvement for to build the vision of success that you have in those areas. And step number five, which is also very, very important, set up the time to reflect and adjust regularly, weekly or bi-weekly or monthly, depending on the goal and aspiration and what makes sense for you for that specific area and action. You'll change. Your priorities will change. What a good life is for you will change. Let your calendar evolve with it. Let yourself evolve. Don't put yourself in the box and then feeling like you have to live in this box still the rest of your life. Humans are the best animals on earth in adaptation. We evolve, change, and adapt. That's what we do. So don't put yourself in a rigid box and then feel like you have to live there forever. Change the box. Get out of your box and find another box or live without a box, right? So let your calendar evolve with you, with your life. It should serve your life, not own your life or you. So fulfillment is actually not that complicated, guys. It just requires a little bit of thinking, a little bit of time, a little bit of consistent effort. Fulfillment equals the formula for fulfillment in life: clarity of your vision, plus consistency of actions to manifest this vision, plus reflection to adjust, because you are evolving, your life is evolving, and so your calendar should evolve with it. And the closing thought: there is no one way to live a good life, but there is one way to live a good life for you. The most important question is are you living it? And that's about it. What I recommend you to do, guys, now schedule some time on your calendar if you were driving, walking, or busy otherwise doing other things while listening to this podcast. Schedule 20 minutes on your calendar at the very least, depending again on how long it was, maybe never, for you to do this kind of work. If you've never done it, then 30 minutes or maybe the whole hour to first define and really think about what is a good life for me. And I also recommend to remove that's the only way it can work, to remove all the notifications, all the distractions. And even better, get yourself out of your familiar contexts, maybe your home, maybe your office, and get yourself somewhere that makes you feel open, inspired, something new, something with views, something just inspiring to you, somewhere where you can just sit there with your thoughts, with your journal, with your calendar, perhaps, with your planner, and just write about who it is you want to become, what kind of life fulfills you, and then go through the process. Just put this podcast on, and after each step, take some time to go through the step, to define what matters to you, to define what success looks like in that area, to identify specific actions you will take consistently to schedule the time, and then schedule the time to reflect and adjust. That's it for today, guys. Please do share this podcast episode perhaps with your friends, perhaps with your peer group, with whom you might stay accountable, to actually do this work together. When we are accountable, it's one of the biggest, one of the most effective tools to actually do what we say we're gonna do to keep yourself accountable to other people. So do it with other people, do it with your family, make it a practice with your family, set your whole family for better work-life integration and fulfillment. So do it together, do it also by yourself if you need a little bit more private time. Share it with at least one other person. Let's together start living a more fulfilling life. I can't do it without you. So please share this podcast with at least one other person. And that's it for today, guys. Thank you for tuning in. I thank you for listening. Thank you for being committed to your personal growth and unlocking more of your potential. And till next time, keep changing, keep growing, keep evolving.