Balanced Living Is About The Dash, Not The Slash

When I see references to work/life balance, it usually looks like this: work/life balance. I am committing to replace the slash with a dash, like this: work-life balance. Why? Because of Linda Ellis’s The Dash, which asks us to consider how we spend our dash – the one that will appear on our headstone between our date of birth and date of death. The dash represents our life in between.

“Work/life balance,” with a slash, suggests a wall between work and life, where we worry about how much time we spend on each side of the wall. “Work-life balance,” with a dash, suggests truer balance, not determined solely by the time spent on each side. With the dash, there is a synergy between work and life, and we move easily between the two.

Here’s to work-life balance.

By Ashley Brewer, Lawyer/Life Coach, The Balanced Life Spa