The image below has become very popular recently, with lots of people sharing it on social networks. It addresses the issue of Work-Life Balance, which I already discussed in a previous post.

I don’t like the image above, because it mixes together many different things: time, money, health, happiness.

In my opinion, the right way to measure our success is through Dimensions of Self-Realization.

The idea is that our lives have several dimensions, and we should look for our self-realization in each one of these dimensions. In other words, we should try to make progress in each one of these different dimensions simultaneously.

For example, these are some possible dimensions we may have in our lives:

• Professional: We want to acquire new professional skills, make progress in our careers, have more authority and more responsibility.
• Intellectual: We want to learn new subjects, educate ourselves, read books, make courses and get certificates.
• Material: We want to have a higher salary, a bigger house and be able to buy expensive products.
• Health: We want to preserve and improve both our physical and mental health.
• Family: We want to have a good and enjoyable relationship with our spouse and children.
• Social: We want to meet friends, participate in parties, have an active community life.
• Spiritual: We want to be connected to forces and traditions that give us more meaning to our lives.

These different dimensions should not conflict with each other. There should be no contradiction between making an effort to have a higher salary, being a better parent to our children and dedicating more time to socialize with friends.

I would say that the real success measure for an individual is the ability to make progress in each one of his/her dimensions of self-realization without feeling guilty. We should not have the impression that it is necessary to make big sacrifices in one dimension in order to develop a different dimension.

What do you think? Please share your opinion in the comments below.