Most people think you need to separate your professional and your personal life, but the truth is they are more intertwined than you know.

 While I fully support boundaries for work, there are two major areas where it is impossible to separate your professional and your personal life. 

At the end of a day, you are a whole person, and you bring your whole self to your professional and your personal life.

Because you are you, your energy and your beliefs are two areas that cannot be separate while at home or at work. You are a whole person.

The things that energize you and drain you of energy are the same no matter where you are. You can increase or decrease your energy, and if there are things that drain your energy at home, it will impact you at work, and vice versa.

What impacts our energy? 

1. Habits

The habits you have outside of work can either energize you or drain you. And when you are at work, you will feel the effects of your personal habits at work. Do you stay up too late? Do you exercise regularly? Do you fuel your body with proper nutrition? 

What about your work habits? Do you answer e-mails late at night? Do you structure your tasks throughout the day based on your energy levels? 

The habits you have at home and at work are reciprocal and have an impact on the other.

2. Relationships/People

Ever have a stressful work relationship that ends up making you irritable at home? Or what about a personal relationship that distracts you while you are at work?

People and relationships can energize us, and some can drain us of energy. The kind of relationships you have at home impact you at work and vice versa. 

3. Thoughts

It’s impossible to separate the thoughts you have at home from the thoughts you have at work. You bring your mindset to both and it either energizes you or drains you of energy.

4. Places/environment

What is your physical work environment like? Is it beautiful and calming? Is it sterile? Or even chaotic? What places energize you? What places drain you of energy? 

If you’ve ever gone home (or alternatively arrived at work) and felt a sense of relief, that’s a good sign that the environment you just left is draining you of energy.

5. Projects/activity

Ever had an extra-curricular or volunteer project you loved? Sometimes this can be the energy boost you need to sustain a job that is draining. 

Have you ever been so jazzed about something at work that you float? That kind of energy doesn’t go away when you’re at home. You bring it with you.

What about beliefs? 

Your thoughts and beliefs influence your emotions which influence your behaviors. 

Beliefs are deeply personal, yet they shape how you show up at work every day. 

Beliefs are a product of our formation. Most of them come from our family of origin and cultural upbringing. 

It doesn’t get more personal than family! And yet this is the source of the beliefs that shape us and how we approach our professional lives.

For each work activity below, there is an associated belief that influences how you approach that activity. Simply ask yourself, “when I was young, what was modeled for me regarding (fill in the blank).”

• Teamwork/working with others

• Valuing diversity

• Difficult conversations

• Handling conflict

• Time management/meeting deadlines

• Performance & accomplishment

• Power & authority

• Negotiating salary/talking about money

• Success & failure

• Motivating & empowering others

• Communicating

• Managing expectations/making agreements

• Taking risks & trying new things

• Creativity

That’s a lot of beliefs that are unconsciously shaping how you approach your work!

Maybe you have already done the work on a few of these to make the unconscious conscious and have replaced unhelpful beliefs with beliefs that will serve you.

Your energy and your beliefs comprise you, whether you are at work or at home. You are a whole person.

Now ask yourself, what is and what isn’t serving me in life and in business with respect to my energy and my beliefs?

What one tiny shift will you make?

Love,

Audrey