There’s a debate I occasionally have with friends. This is my take and I’m sticking to it! Our lives are multifaceted. We are multidimensional. There’s the work you, the college you, the church you, the home you, the friends you, the hobbies you and any other “yous” you can think of. I’ve encountered people who try to make sure that work has no impact on any other area of their lives except at work. You can substitute “work” with any other facet of your life. They attempt to have ‘hard boundaries’ between the different areas.
illustration repres, flickr (cc)
Though our lives are multifaceted we are not numerous people. We are one. You are one! Hence whatever happens in one area of your life does impact other areas of your life. You may be able to suppress the fruit of what is happening in one area of your life while operating in another. For instance, you may be able to suppress the impact of stress at the office while spending time with your children.
My point is: one area of your life has impact on other areas and subsequently the ‘total you’. We often have different experiences in different area of our lives simultaneously. Work can be going great while family life isn’t good… It is when one area gets to the ‘overwhelming threshold’. It is different for all. However, we all have breaking points.
What does all this mean? It means no one area of your life is independent of another. The common thing about the areas of your life is you. You are in all of them! Instead of trying to keep everything in its box, we should work on addressing issues that may escalate to levels that will negatively impact the others. We are networked within. What happens in ‘network’ X will impact ‘network’ Y.