I would like to make an important observation about self-care. It is somewhat strange to watch how discussions about work-life balance often drift toward extremes.
I will not focus on the extreme where self-care is portrayed as something that should outweigh any responsibility or commitment to work. A more interesting extreme is the opposite one – where people consider self-care or the idea of work–life balance to be foolish, unrealistic, or somehow irrational.
But the issue is that self-care is not a fashionable concept or an idea invented by psychologists. Self-care is a very simple and logical necessity, from which the need for a certain balance between work and life naturally follows.
Let us consider a simple example. People usually have something that serves as their most important tool – the source of their income or professional development. If someone works in transportation, that tool is their car. If someone works in art or craftsmanship, their tools are the instruments of their craft. For someone else, it may be their books or other professional resources.
In other words, whatever people rely on to work, earn money, and develop professionally is usually maintained with great care. They service it on time, clean it, repair it when necessary, and sometimes allow it to rest so that the “tool” continues to function properly.
Now the question becomes very simple: if we treat even a car with such care, why do we not apply the same principle to our own organism – to our body and our nervous system?
If we accept the idea that the body needs recovery and rest, and that the mind also needs time to restore itself, then why is it so difficult to accept the necessity of balancing work and life? After all, the most valuable “tool” we possess is our own organism – our nervous system.
Of course, we must also acknowledge another reality. In many fields, particularly in the technology and startup environments, there is a widely spread narrative that if a person tries to maintain work-life balance, they will never achieve great success. Many entrepreneurs and startup founders use this argument, and to some extent it is understandable.
However, advocates of work–life balance do not necessarily deny this. The real question is simply this: what do we value most in life, and how do we define success?
If for someone the main goal of life is to achieve rapid success in business or in their profession, that is their choice. In that case, they themselves decide how success is measured and what price they are willing to pay for it.
The central question, therefore, is this: at what cost, and for what purpose?
If the most important component of a person’s formula for success is achievement in business alone, they may choose a more intense and demanding work regime. But if that formula also includes health, longevity, a fulfilling personal life, relationships with family, and meaningful social connections, then maintaining a balance between work and life becomes almost unavoidable.
The reason is simple. A day has only 24 hours, and our resources – both physical and neurological – are limited.
Yes, neuroscience and neurobiological research show that we can gradually expand our capabilities and develop our nervous system, even at the level of neurons. But this is not a rapid process, and certainly not one with an infinite horizon.
From this perspective, returning to the idea of self-care, it becomes clear that this is not a fashionable trend or a fancy concept packaged by psychologists. It is a necessity – one that allows us to live healthier, more fulfilling, and longer lives.
I personally love my profession immensely and usually begin each working day or project with great enthusiasm. However, I receive clients only four days a week and try to maintain this model as consistently as possible. It is important for me to have time to recover, to engage in my many hobbies, and to spend time with my family and friends, so that I can also perform my work with the quality it deserves.
For this reason, I also dedicate time to my interests and hobbies, to professional development – reading books, participating in workshops, exchanging experience, and passing that experience on to younger and early-career professionals.
All of this also requires time and energy. That is precisely why I cannot avoid balancing life and work.
P.S. In the photo, that’s me with one of my self-care tools – my motorcycle 🙂