Ambitious loan officers are always on the go. Whether it’s meeting with clients or referral partners, finishing up some paperwork, or heading out to a networking event— their days are often full and can easily bleed into their personal lives. When this happens too regularly though, and we continually sacrifice our personal lives to our professional ones, we can get thrown off balance. And although this can produce some short-term success at work, remaining imbalanced for longer periods can lead us to burnout. A healthy work-life balance is possible, even if you’re having a hard time finding the sweet spot. With a little effort and attention, you can establish and maintain a balance that’s right for you. Here are a few things to consider if you want to achieve an optimal work-life balance:
It Doesn’t Need to Be 50/50
A fifty-fifty split isn’t what we’re looking for here. As individuals, with individual needs, balance will look different for each of us, and that balance may change as our lives change. Maybe you’re just starting out in the business and have an active social life, or perhaps you’ve been in the business for years and have a family at home. Whatever your situation, work has a tendency of taking more of our focus if it feels like a key time in our career, and at other times, our personal lives will get more emphasis. If we’re paying attention, we can better manage the balance, and be sure that enough energy is being given to both the personal and the professional. Find out what the optimal balance is for you right now, and know that it may change a few months (or years) down the road. Be honest with yourself and your needs for that time in your life, what’s truly important.
Your Personal Life Directly Benefits Your Professional Life
You’re probably familiar with the old admonition that ‘you can’t pour from an empty cup’. We can’t show up for work and perform at our best if we haven’t done enough to replenish ourselves from the day before. We need to set clear boundaries for our personal lives and try to avoid letting work leech from it. Investing in our personal lives isn’t in opposition to our work—it’s an investment in ourselves that will help us perform better all around. To really achieve—and maintain— a healthy work-life balance, you need a clear perspective on your personal life. When you feel guilty about taking time for yourself or see it as a distraction from your work and productivity, you’re setting yourself up for a challenge. When you place greater value on your personal life and see how it can benefit you personally and professionally, it becomes easier to find that balance.
Balance Can Look Different Each Day
Just as our work-life balance will look different from everyone else’s, it may also look different from day to day. Being flexible will help you stay balanced. Some days you’re going to have no choice but to stay late at the office, while another day you might need the afternoon off to get to your kid’s baseball game. We don’t need to impose rigid rules on ourselves in an attempt to make every day look the same. Once we have a general sense of what balance feels like for us, we realize that it’s not a fixed point but rather a broader area that we can shape as we see fit. Each day may look a little different, but you’re still staying within that optimal range. Sticking to and managing a schedule/calendar is important (see “How Loan Officers Can Work Smarter”).
Boundaries Really Help
Finally, here’s a little more on the importance of setting boundaries. Rigid rules have a tendency to backfire, while boundaries offer support. They help you stay in that balance area I mentioned and keep you from falling too far to one side or the other. Identify and establish the boundaries that are right for you. Whether it’s shutting off your phone at a certain time each night or setting up a home office where you can work undisturbed, creating boundaries is a terrific strategy to keep balance. Loan officers tend to feel obligated to be on call 24-7, but by setting boundaries and proper expectations with clients and referral partners they tend to earn more respect.
We can all achieve a healthy work-life balance. The key is recognizing that it will take some effort to establish and then sustain. With a busy career, chances are that your healthy balance won’t just appear organically. You’ll need to define what it looks like, then set up the necessary structures to keep it in place.
If you’d like to talk more about any of these ideas, or if there’s another issue I can be of assistance with, please reach out. I’m always happy to block off some time to connect.
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