24 hours in a day, 168 hours in a week. Junior investment bankers regularly work 80-90 hours a week. Many other high profile professions require the same level of commitment. Often those on the outside claim that working 80-90 hours a week is bad/wrong/terrible/silly/etc but we’ve spoken with so many folks who say working that much has been the best decision of their life – it allowed them to develop a deep and strong skill set far faster than would have been possible otherwise. In other words, by working 2x the hours, they were able to generate 5x or more the rewards. And depending on where you are in your career, investing heavily in your skills and competence can pay dividends for a long time.

Semarah Lafi

Over time, I found that boundaries on work-life balance are super important. If you are constantly working 12 hours every day, working to live, you will be unhappy and find your job miserable. There was a point in my career where I felt miserable. I took months off from working and decided to change my mindset. It was the best decision I have ever made in my career. I became more creative and enjoy work more than I did before! Read more>>

Connie Costa | Spiritual Life Coach, Writer & Sicily Travel Host

I no longer think of it as a “balance” because I’ve realized that framing it that way creates unnecessary pressure. Especially for working moms, the idea of “balancing it all” can feel more overwhelming than empowering. Today, I approach life through the lens of values. I’ve identified my top values, and I consistently make room for them. If something doesn’t align with those values, I give myself permission to say “no”—without guilt or regret. Read more>>

Jonathan Hay | Celebrity Publicist

During the creation of my public relations enterprise, my envious former associate and ex-fiancé raised initial financing through her disreputable father. As he was experiencing financial hardship and lived among the Amish, the amount he invested was quite limited. He was able to recover his investment and ROI in just a few months and subsequently invested that profit into a pool hall business with his girlfriend, who is also the aunt of his grandchild. My ex-business colleague teamed up with a strong-willed individual with paraplegia, dedicating financial support and personal commitment to him, but ultimately, he was apprehended for a home invasion. Read more>>

Wallflower Cafe | Local mobile coffee bar

It has definitely become a very calculated and precise balance when it comes to our work and personal life. We both have our full time jobs, as well as our families and extracurriculars we enjoy doing. Although this is our passion, it still requires extensive management and time. We find that the balance tends to lean more towards the cafe. We’re still trying to even that out. Even when we just go out to eat, we’re still brainstorming new recipes or ordering supplies. We learned a lot along the way because there are other factors we never considered like marketing, prepping, and networking, but we still wouldn’t trade it for the world. Read more>>

Marisela Rosales | Holistic Psychotherapist & Somatic Coach

My work-life balance has transformed over the years—from feeling overworked and overwhelmed to now enjoying consistent three-day weekends. Sitting here today, I can’t imagine still being stuck in the cycles that pushed me to burnout over a decade ago.

Today, I live a well-balanced, semi-retired kind of life. But it wasn’t always this way. For most of my adult life, I hustled and overworked, much of it driven by a need to feel enough—to be seen and valued for my skills, wisdom, and how much I helped others. Read more>>

David Woodruff | Director, Actor, Storyteller, Make-Up Artist

This is a fun question. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. The saying “don’t live to work, work to live” comes to mind. For a long time, For a long time I now feel like I focused way too much on trying to keep working. I associated a lot of my self worth with work, income, and perceived successes. Now, this was a lot easier to slip into because of how much I love what I get to do for a living, but I also don’t think it was a healthy connection. In the last couple years, as I reassessed the directions I wanted to move, I became more aware of this and worked to redirect that balance. Right around the time I became aware of this, work in my field really started slow down and it allowed me to really consider said balance. The pursuit of different goals opened me up to looking forward to and working towards things that will serve me in the long run. Read more>>

Korbin Brown | Director

Work-life balance is one of the toughest challenges I’ve faced for all the wrong reasons. I love what I do and I’m so blessed and happy that I get to wake up every morning and make films with my peers and a few of my friends. Because work has become somewhat of a playhouse for me balancing the life part is where I struggle. It’s easy for me to be on set 7 days a week for 12 hours a day because that’s what I love to do and I don’t feel like I’m at work when I’m working but that type of life simply isn’t sustainable to my health or the outside relationships I have. As I’ve grown a little older I’ve had to find constructive ways to restrain myself from overworking myself at what I love. I’ve had to learn it’s okay not to sleep eat and breathe filmmaking. Read more>>

Anthony Salas | Owner of Honey from the Ant-Tree

Starting in 2020 when the whole world basically was shaken was one of the scariest things I ever did. I quit my job to pursue my business while helping the kids with online school when the pandemic hit. So between being a dad /teacher I would make beeswaxcandles and jar honey while the kids did their school work. They would get out at about 12 pm and one of them would tag along with me selling our candles as I sold honey. Call me and my girls the dynamic quad , as we went business to business sharing our local honey and candles. So we’ve been balanced since the beginning of Honey from the Ant-Tree. Read more>>