My DBA classmate, Donna Dark has kindly passed on an article regarding work-life balance, thinking it might be useful for my research. I should say, that’s one of the benefits of having face time with peers for the DBA program of University of Wollongong, which provides valuable support, feedback and sometimes, sympathy that are much needed to finish a DBA…
I find the article itself is very interesting, inspirational and relevant to my research topic. It is a feature story about Arianna Huffington, who is a campaigner for the Third Metric, which tries to redefine success in more personal terms such as “the values of wellbeing, wisdom and kindness”, rather than by its traditional, male-focused measures of power and money. Arianna advocates work-life balance in searching for a new model of success that would work for women, AND men. One of her missions is to change people’s attitudes toward stress. She strongly promotes personal sustainability, encouraging people to maintain a more balanced work life, to get more sleep and to re-prioritise one’s work and life tasks. In short, she calls it, “unplug and recharge”.
Arianna is a strong-willed woman with many high achievements both politically and commercially. She is deeply influenced by her mother, who used to tell her, “There are no failures, only stepping stones to success.” Guess how Arianna defines her own success? She thinks the proud career she has achieved is only “a career success”, and her greatest life success is her two daughters. For her, success has two meanings from both work and life sides.
Reflecting on Arianna’s life story and her ideas, I believe there are more women, and even men, out there challenging the traditional definition of success and the meaning of work. However, to see a real change in culture and value systems is still a long way to go. Fortunately, there are campaigners like Arianna to make this process quicker and shorter, just like what my research wishes to do too.
Work-life balance 