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Work-life balance is frequently thought of as a problem to solve.

It's more accurate, and helpful, to think of work-life balance as a dilemma to manage.

It's important to consider your life stage as well as the expectations from which you feel pressure.

The elusive “work-life balance”: Is it possible? What is it exactly? I think of it as somehow maintaining professional success and personal success without letting one of the two significantly interfere with the other. Most of the time, though, it seems that work-life balance simply refers to not letting your workload deprive you of a satisfying personal life.

Perhaps it’s unrealistic for most of us to think that we can “have it all,” if that means being at the absolute pinnacle of our profession and having all the desired time and energy to spend in recreation, personal pursuits, and relationships of all types. So what can you do?

Achieving work-life balance is often framed as a problem to solve, once and for all. Even using the word “achieve” implies the possibility of being “done” with the goal. However, I believe that work-life balance is a dilemma to manage, rather than a problem to solve. A dilemma is a complex situation requiring a choice between two or more conflicting alternatives—that is, choosing one represents loss of the other.

Think of work and “life” as two ends of a continuum. As you move........

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