Ep 4 - The Balancing Act | with Eitan Sharir & Sasja Chomos

If you take the time to look around you, you’ll see almost everyone trying to pull off the balancing act between home life and work. You hear it expressed as a desire to achieve work-life balance, but Eitan Sharir believes that the “work-life” approach to balance implies that work is not really “life,” when in fact, it is just as much an important part of life as being at home with family members. For him, it’s an issue of greater purpose, and on this short episode of The Vertical Mindset Eitan shares how he guides people to understand the power of life purpose, being a chooser, and the impact those two things make on their own balancing act.

Balance is not in what you do, it’s in what you focus on.

When you try to balance out your life, the primary issues that come up are those of distraction. You are home with your family but still feel the tug of work-related items or deadlines. Eitan says that the key issue when seeking to perform a balancing act effectively is that you know your life purpose and are committed to living according to it. It’s that knowledge that enables you to make the right choices and to apply the depth of your desire to whatever situation you are in. You learn that balance is not about what you do, it’s about where you place your focus at any given time. Learn how to be 100% at work when you are working and 100% at home when you are at home, in this episode.

A key component in work-life balance is to remember that you are a chooser.

Do you feel that you are in control of what happens in your life, or do you feel that things happen to you? It’s an important distinction - one you need to fully grasp and apply to your own life. When you understand the power you have to be a chooser, then you are able to push aside the demands and outside pressures you may feel at any given time and apply the power of choice to the situation. Nothing outside you need place a demand on you - you are able to choose what is best for you at any moment. So when you are at home, you can choose to BE at home, with your family, engaging in what is important there. Find out how Eitan Sharir applies vertical living to the balancing act of life, on this episode.

If your family is most important to you, why do you live as if they aren’t? 

We all live with a certain level of contradiction in our lives. We say one thing yet live our lives in ways that appear and in fact, are contrary to that thing. For example, almost every executive Eitan speaks with says that their family is most important to them. Yet, they allow work and work-related issues to intrude on family time regularly. The power to change comes in realizing that you have the power to choose, that you are in all actuality free from the pull of outer demands. You simply have to choose to live that way. It may sound a bit simplistic here, but if you’ll take the time to listen to Eitan’s explanation, you’ll be helped greatly.

When you are clear on our bigger purpose it’s easier to say “No!” to the right things.

Our brains simply cannot handle the weight of continually mounting responsibilities. We have a limitation on our capacity as human beings. That’s why we have to learn to say, “No” to some things in order to take on others. But how do you make wise decisions when it comes to knowing what you should say “no” to? Eitan Sharir says that your decision to say, “no” flows out of your larger life purpose. When you become crystal clear on why you are living your life, the decisions about what you will take responsibility for and what you will not becomes equally clear. Do what you can to set aside time to hear his explanation on this episode. You’ll be glad you did.

Outline of This Episode

• [1:03] The reason people feel a need for work-life balance, and how Eitan looks at the problem.
• [4:23] Handling situations practically: How do you manage being fully present in each context?
• [9:33] Why we don’t keep adding tasks to our load without removing others.
• [11:36] What are the things Eitan sees people most commonly decide to stop doing?
• [14:22] How can you know when you are doing things from a right motive or from a sense of obligation?
• [17:49] Learning to notice when you are living in a state of division rather than fully in balance.