Love The Job And Prioritise The Rest

17 November 2007

Kate James is one of a growing number of private coaches working with people whose work-life balance is out of kilter.

But how does she find a balance between her own working life - in which she can tote up 50 hours a week - and her private life, which includes bringing up two teenage daughters?

Ms James opened her coaching business from home five years ago. It has grown steadily and there has been a demand for increased hours.

She started her consultancy after working as a business manager with a firm of architects and a film company.

Over the years she has found that the more you love your job, the easier it is to balance it with your private life.

"You can work 50 hours a week and enjoy it - and you can work 30 hours a week and not enjoy it. The people working 50 hours and enjoying it are far more likely to have a successful work-life balance than those working the 30 hours who don't like what they are doing," she says.

"If you have found a job that you love but it has extra hours, they won't matter."

Ms James says most of her clients are professionals, including corporate lawyers, accountants and managers.

"They are people who find themselves not enjoying their jobs and whose lives have fallen out of balance through stress, anxiety and tension," she says.

Ms James' one-on-one coaching emphasises health and wellbeing as the most important objectives.

She asks her clients to clarify what is important in their lives, including family happiness, childrearing and relationships.

She stresses the need for people to know what they are working towards and is emphatic that meditation can dramatically assist personal harmony.

Ms James says meditation plays a huge role in her capacity to contend with the pressures of her job and private life.

"I go to the gym three days a week, I walk along the beach two days a week and I meditate every day.

"And I love the job I'm doing - that is incredibly important."


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