Have you ever struggled to strike a balance between your work and personal life? I often do!
Recently, I read the Spanish book, ‘Marketing de Pareja: las Mejores Técnicas de Marketing para Convertir tu Relación en un Producto Estrella’ (The Best Marketing Techniques to Convert Your Relationship into a Star Product), written by Miguel Janer and David Suriol. This is a short self-help book that encourages us to apply marketing techniques to our relationships. The authors also talk about harmonising personal/family life with our professional life, beginning with what they call ‘The Tripod Theory’.
Where does the tripod metaphor come from?
The authors explain, if you take a snapshot with a camera on a tripod with ill-adjusted feet, it will be lopsided or out of focus. They suggest the same applies to us.
Our life has three pillars:
- Self-realisation
- Relationships (as we are social beings by nature)
- Work/professional life
Without BALANCE, they are useless.
The first basic idea the authors mention is ‘balance’, which they describe using the term EQUILIBRIUM. The tripod allows you to adapt its legs to any type of floor, level or not.
How do I apply it to my personal life?
Due to my work, I fly an average 75 times per year, which means I am often away from home.
To find this equilibrium, I must strategically define a routine that works for my family, my job and me. This includes:
- Every Thursday, I have dinner, only with my wife, when I come back from business trips
- During the weekend, I spend time with my children, dedicating 30 minutes with each one, doing different activities, like watching their football game, for example
- On Sundays, we usually go to church and visit their grandparents
- If I am away from home for 3 weeks, I make sure to spend the 4th weekend at home
- Through the week, I dedicate 30 minutes per day to exercising, to take care of my health.
This routine helps me take a break from work to focus on my relationships with family and friends.
Balance does not exist without negotiation
When we face obstacles to a work-life balance, we tend to keep it to ourselves or internalise it. However, we should not forget that our relatives are part of this balance.
Thus, the idea of NEGOTIATION is very important. This is why including my family in my daily routine is key to my work-life balance. My wife and I are always communicating. I dedicate most of my time to Medline, so I try to make her feel as though she is part of my job. On the other hand, I listen to her and about her job as Director of the school.
The purpose of including others and communicating with them is to adapt the three legs of the tripod to the ground so all can find balance, and this is impossible unless we look for a win-win for all parties.
Antonio Garcia
Vice President Sales & Product Divisions, Medline Europe
With over 20 years in the healthcare sector and an MBA, Antonio manages nine divisions across Medline Europe and is responsible of sales and marketing in 20 European countries. His five children give him the energy he needs for the day and he enjoys working in high-performance multicultural environments. Learn more on LinkedIn.
28 October 2020
