We move in a world of a thousand roles that we play. Some of them we reproduce, taking inspiration from the people around us; some of them we involuntarily recreate; other stories meet us by chance and stay for a long time. On the board of life, we often forget that we have a voice and the right to make decisions, losing the sense of who we really are along the way. What do you really want? Who are you beyond your work, beyond your domestic responsibilities?

Work-from-home

You often move in a work-home mechanism. You live in a reel of repetitive roles, patterns, and responsibilities. You can easily predict what the next day will look like. You don't even have the time to sit down and think more deeply about the meaning of this record you play every day. Often, you don't even have the strength to question it, to interrupt it, or to change the course of events, because you already lack the energy even to make any other decision.

This is how days and years pass. You put all your energy into your work, and what is left—and there isn't much left—is spent on other activities or further responsibilities. These other spheres become fewer and fewer as your energy resources melt away because you give away so much of it to the outside world. What is left of it for you? And so you gradually forget who you are outside of work, who you were before you entered this rush.

Model

Most often, we transfer our commitment to our work or our business from a relationship in the family home, in which our energy was also mainly channeled into supporting a parent. The support of the mother, in particular, is reflected in adulthood in the transfer of one's energy and attention to work or business and clients. In this pattern, there is a separation problem: that I can be someone else outside of work, that there is life outside of work, and that I don't have to put all my energy into developing my career or business.

You are more than your growing business or job. You are someone else, broader, bigger. That pattern was the defensive strategy of a small child, which you are no longer. Now you can choose; you can expand your life and enrich it with new values, experiences, and relationships. You can manage your energy from a new point.

Energy

Try to redirect your attention to new areas of your life. Try to build a work-home balance sphere, where you separate your private time from your business. This is very important, especially if you are an entrepreneur; you may then tend to overdirect your attention to work. Try to reserve your time for activities that you enjoy. Let these be your passions or just simple activities that you enjoy. Also allow yourself a bit of surprise, an adventure; maybe take a trip from time to time. Pay attention to what you invest your money in, whether your expenses are mainly related to work and self-development, and how much is left over for pleasure and for you as a person, not an entrepreneur or employee.

Femininity and masculinity

We have the opportunity and privilege to focus our attention on experiencing life itself, rather than living under the pressure to achieve. You are not a goal-setting machine but a human being who can be fulfilled by just experiencing. It was social pressure that started the movements that shifted human attention to achievement. Look at the culture of previous centuries, where the word pressure was not used because nobody felt its effects in everyday life. This is how certain social frameworks began to take shape in place of feminine and masculine archetypes, which imposed on women in particular many roles in which it is easy to get lost in relation to the expectations directed at the fairer sex. So, who is the modern woman? And who is the modern man?

The mixing of male and female roles with professional roles has made it difficult to make sense of what is really important to each of them. Slowly, both the woman and the man have become primarily employees and secondarily see themselves as representatives of a particular gender. Being an employee or entrepreneur has superseded being a man; professional roles have started to overshadow social roles.

Can this be called an identity crisis? Certainly, on the verge of a work-life balance is our understanding of the balance between the professional and private worlds.

Identity

On the journey of reclaiming your identity, it is worth asking yourself questions:

  • Who am I outside of work or my business?

  • Who was I before I focused on work?

  • What would my life look like if I didn't have to work?

  • What spheres would I like to expand outside of work?

  • What dreams do I have outside of work?

The answers to these questions allow you to find the lost pieces of your identity that you need to piece together in order to build your identity anew in non-work spheres. Remember that you are not just your job. You are not just your business. You are the owner of the energy that you can direct in any way you want. You don't have to recreate patterns from the past. You can build your life from completely new elements, putting new values as priorities.