How to Balance Your Career and Relationship as a Busy CEO

Balancing your career and relationship with loved ones is not easy. You have these big goals and things you want to accomplish, but also have people who you love in your life that demand and deserve your attention. This article is for you if your loved ones are saying you are spending too much time on chasing career goals and not enough time with them.

If this sounds like you, the lack of balance between your career and relationship is because of lacking one or more of the following:

  1. Presence
  2. Focus
  3. Shared long-term goals

Here is a strategy for balancing your career and relationship that addresses each of these three reasons for imbalance.

3 Reasons Why Your Career Relationship Balance is out of Whack

1 – You are Lacking Presence

When my wife tells me I am not spending enough time with her, what she is really saying is that she does not feel my presence. By changing how present you are when you are with your significant other, it changes their perception of how much time you are spending with them.

Spending time with your significant other comes down to the old cliché of quality, not quantity. Increasing the quality of your presence is as easy as getting rid of all the things that could distract you.
The biggest distraction is your cell phone. People touch their cell phones over 2,700 times a day.

My strategy for increasing my presence is to make it a point of letting my wife see me put my phone on airplane mode. It lets her know my attention is completely focused on her.

I don’t care how much you work – you always have to be 100 percent disengaged from your career when spending time nurturing your relationship.

Make it a point to turn off your cell phone every time you are with your significant other over the next 30 days. Pay attention to how this time together feels versus when you have your cell phone on.

Titanium Life Ep 59 Improve Intimate Relationships Infographic

 

2 – Your Focus is Not Strong Enough

If you are fully present when you are with your significant other but still struggle with balancing your career and relationship, your issue might be your focus.

Many people who claim they work really hard and beat about the hours they put in actually lack focus. You should never have to work so many hours that it gets in the way of your relationship.

If you’re working 12 hours a day consistently, you are probably putting your hands in too many things. As a founder or CEO of a successful business, it is easy to feel like you have to be every hour possible to keep things afloat. When you increase your focus, you increase your efficiency.

I help my business coaching clients increase their efficiency through the time management strategy of creating fake urgency. You can learn more about my time management strategies here.

Focus and presence in your relationship go hand in hand, as part of focus is focusing on the things you want the most. I have my business coaching clients fill out their Wheel of Life so they have a clear definition of what they want out of each of the 10 key areas of their lives.

Use the Wheel of Life to define what a 10 looks like in each area, and then rate yourself from 1 to 10. This will help you see how balanced you are right now, and what you need to put your focus towards moving forward.

The Titanium Success Wheel Of Life Infographic

3 – You and Your Partner Don’t Share the Same Long-Term Goals

If you are present and focused but still struggle with balancing your career and relationship, you and your partner might not share the same long-term goals.

When was the last time you sat down and talked about long-term goals with your partner? Most people do not have this conversation at all, and then they wonder why they are unsatisfied in their relationship.

When you get crystal clear on your long-term goals, one of two things happens. Either you have the same goals and it is just a matter of getting back on the same page, or you both just have a fundamental difference between what you want out of life.

If the latter is the case, you will have to consider ending the relationship. Being in a relationship like this is like being in a car for a road trip, but one person wants to go to Texas and the other wants to go to Illinois. The GPS will not get you to either destination and neither of you will be happy with where you end up.

An Exercise for Improving Balance Between Your Career And Relationship

My challenge to you is to be 100 percent present with your significant other when you see them today. Turn off your cell phone in front of them and do something that does not involve any distractions from technology. Send a nonverbal message to them that says THEY are the most important thing in your life.

Do you need help balancing your career and relationship? Schedule a business coaching session to learn how to get the most out of your career while still giving the ones you love the attention they deserve.

If you have questions about balancing your career and relationship, leave them in a comment below and I will respond personally.

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