Work-Life Balance

The Hotpot | December 2025 | By Lisanne

28.12

We talk about work-life balance as if life were a set of matching weights. Fifty percent here, fifty percent there, and somehow the math will save us.

So we organize our days around neat blocks of time. We clock in at work before dawn and out at five o’clock when our social lives are supposed to begin. Some take it down to the minute, others play with it a bit.

But energy often doesn’t work like math.

If we pour everything into our work, there’s not much left for our personal life. If we give every drop to our relationship, we wouldn’t be able to run our business. Energy isn’t a pie chart — it’s a pulse. It goes where the moment demands.

If you have a sick child, you have a sick child. If you have a deal to close, that’s what you have to do. Life tilts, and you tilt with it.

Balance is a bit of a myth we keep polishing. It sounds reassuring, and it suggests control. Maybe that’s why we keep reaching for it.

What seems to matter more, though, are the small intentional choices we repeat.

You don’t scale a company with one dramatic sprint, and you don’t build a relationship with one romantic weekend away. You build both the same way: through rituals, through tiny acts of consistency, through the courage to show up even when you’re stretched thin.

For me, it’s the small things I protect with my life:

The Sunday walk-and-talks, the video messages when we’re in different cities, the habit of checking in before something gets out of hand. These little anchors keep me connected, even when we are apart.

Those moments don’t solve the equation.
They just keep us connected.

They hold more weight than any grand idea of balance ever could — and they strip the pressure of work-life balance down to something less overwhelming and more achievable.

Maybe life isn’t asking for balance after all.
Maybe it’s asking for presence.

Thank you for reading! The journal prompt of today:

What are your joyful moments?

Let me know in the comments. 

Curious to see more reflections like this? Click through to see the rest of the series on self-care. I’d love to hear what resonates with you.