Forget Work Life Balance. Find Work Life Energy.

“Get better at work life balance.” I think that’s been a goal of mine for 10 years. To be honest, it’s probably created more stress in my life than good. I was working so hard to make my hours in the office count, blocking out the rest of my life during those hours.

This hustle made it really hard to feel like I accomplished anything when I did finally get home. Instead, I felt exhausted. I couldn’t enjoy my time at home because I just kept thinking about what I was too tired to do—to exercise, to spend time with friends, to talk about anything other than work. I felt like I was accomplishing something, though, because I didn’t have to bring my laptop home. But was I really achieving balance when I had no “life” in this equation?

It’s taken a while to figure out what was missing, what I was really needing. Luckily, I was able to find it with the help of my colleagues at Propel. It’s something we call work life energy.

The whole point of work life balance is to work hard on one end and have the opportunity to refuel on the other. But we live in such a wired, fast-paced world, it’s hard to fully disconnect. This makes work life balance pretty much unachievable. Rather than drawing a dividing line between the two parts of our lives, work life energy takes a look at our passions. Instead of working harder, how can we work with more passion? If we can bring our outside passions into work, work seems a little less like work, making us productive and satisfied.

Everything in our lives is interconnected; trying to silo aspects of our lives doesn’t work because we’re integrated human beings. It’s challenging to be a truly healthy, authentic person if you are excelling in one area of your life but neglecting others. The most content and inspired people are that way because they have great energy in all areas of their lives. When you understand this and tie it into the idea of passion, your energy starts feeding on itself and expands throughout your life.

So how has Propel helped us find work life energy? It’s individualized for each person, so what work life energy is for me may look different for someone else.

What does Propel get out of this? A productive, passionate, happy employee who wants to come to work each day and give her best. An inspired team of employees who want to—and will—do good work in the world.

We didn’t find work life energy over night. It’s something we’ve naturally grown and nurtured here. We’re just now putting words around it. Take a look at what #worklifeenergy means to us.

So, what are you passionate about? Take time to find it, and let us know how will you find your work life energy.