Leaving Life at the Office Door

Well, since many of us are working from home this is even less true now, but it’s never been true. We can’t leave life at the office door. We are one being, one human, what happens at work impacts the rest of our lives, much like what happens in life impacts our work.   

If we are stressed about an upcoming deadline for example, that stress doesn’t go away just because we shut down our computers and ‘leave the office’. The stress is there when we prepare dinner, when we interact with friends and family, when we try to fall asleep. The stress shortens our fuse and we get irritated faster and with greater intensity. The same is true the other way around too. If we are worried about a sick relative or how we are going to pay our bills, we don’t leave the worry just because we are at work. We carry our stresses and worries and bring them to all parts of our lives, much like we bring our joys, excitement and happiness to all parts.

That’s why, when we coach, we have to look at the whole human being. We take a holistic look to see what parts need more of our attention, where there is room for improvement. And luckily for us, usually when we improve and feel better about one part, say health or relationships for example, we also feel better about other parts of our lives. All our parts are connected and we can elevate all the parts together.