Today I’m thinking about the concept of work life, and personal life, and how sometimes there’s a lot of pressure (or preference) to keeping those two things separate.

This was prompted by an awesome conversation with one of my coworkers, who happens to be my partner-in-vaping-in-inappropriate-places-crime (you know who you are). He said that he happened across my Facebook post advertising my painting rocks post, which introduced him to my blog, and before he knew it he had browsed through a few posts and realized…I am people too! Not just someone he works with but an actual 3D person that leaves work and then does other stuff that is not work.

It was cool to have this conversation, one because it made me feel great that something I wrote resonated with someone else and I didn’t even know it, and two because I strongly believe that creating these kinds of connections with the people you work with is critical to having a good balance between your personal life and your work life.

I read a book once that talked about authenticity and who we are as people, and if we don’t show up at work like we show up at home, if we present two different people in these two aspects of our lives, then we are not living authentically. This is really meaningful to me. As my vaping partner said, you spend 80% of your waking hours with the people you work with, when you really think about it. If you can’t be yourself with your workmates, then you’re spending well over half your life being someone you’re not.

These are all work friends! I literally could not live without these peeps.

Another thing to think about when it comes to your “work face” as opposed to your “home face” is that the two parts of yourself are not in alignment. It’s exhausting! Plus think about those people you know at work, those that you actually know…aren’t you just a little more forgiving, a little more at ease, work just a little bit more easily with them?

The other part of our conversation that I really appreciated was how he said he read my blog and it impacted him enough that he wanted to reach out and tell me. I’ve written so many posts on here and some of them get a few views and some don’t get any at all, but I keep doing it…because maybe someday someone reads it and gets to know me a little better! Or something I’m telling a story about strikes a note in someone else and they realize they’re not alone.

All in all, it was a satisfying, fulfilling day.

And now, mush out.

2N