Rebecca Kennedy, PhD
American College Health Association
June 1, 2011
Why is it important to be dually satisfied
with your work and personal life?
Attain life satisfaction
Maintain ability to do good work with clients/patients
Maintain healthy relationships
Be a role model for your clients/patients
Avoid burnout
Avoid compassion fatigue
Avoid chronic disease caused by prolonged stress
What else?
Work-Life Balance
Journal
Exercise 1: Eulogy
How do you want to be
remembered?
 What are the major contributions that you would like
to be remembered for?
 Is there a slogan/phrase that represents how you want
to be remembered? (never met a stranger etc.)
 Is there anything you want to make sure is not part of
your Eulogy? – Cats in the cradle song
 Who/what are the “rocks” in your life that you want to
be sure you are remembered for or by?
What are the major elements of your life that you
are trying to keep in balance?
 Children
 Spouse/marriage/romantic relationship
 Household responsibilities
 Parents/siblings/family
 Friends
 Church
 Physical health/fitness
 Work
 Personal growth
 Self-care/relaxation
Exercise 2: Top 10 list
Put a rating next to each of the major elements in your
life to signify how satisfied you are at present with the
allocation each of them has.
0 = no satisfaction with the current allocation
5 = medium satisfaction with the current allocation
10 = perfect satisfaction with the current allocation
Exercise 3: Factor interference/facilitation
For each of your Top Ten priorities take a few minutes and
journal about the allocation rating you assigned it.
For those with lower satisfaction ratings – what factors
are interfering with your ability to allocate more
time/energy to this priority?
2. For those with higher satisfaction ratings – what
factors promote/facilitate your ability to allocate more
time/energy to this priority?
3. Note any themes that are evident as you look at your
responses to items one and two.
1.
Common Conflicts
 “I have multiple priorities in my life that compete for my time and I
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have trouble deciding where to put my energy at any given time.”
“I have a few priorities in my life that I could seemingly devote
unending time to and therefore have a hard time knowing what a
healthy balance is.”
“I have things that I know I should do, or even that I want to do, but
I can’t seem to find time for them.”
“I seem to be always putting out fires or doing things that have to be
done such as household responsibilities and rarely have anything
left for my other priorities.
“I feel like everything and everyone in my life is getting shortchanged –especially me!”
Common Conflicts for Helping
Professionals
 “My patients/clients need me!”
 “I’m so busy taking care of others there is little left for
me.”
 “I am exhausted by the time I get home and can hardly
find the energy to make dinner much less do much
else.”
 “Emergencies arise unpredictably and I have to attend
to them.”
 What else?
Exercise 4: Pros and Cons
Step 1: List the Pros
Journal some of the reasons that you like the current
balance you have and how you will maintain it.
Step 2: List the Cons
Journal some of the reasons that you dislike the current
balance and why you are considering a different balance.
Step 3: Assign weights
Journal about the process of assigning weights and
the struggle that you experience as you do this.
A paradigm case of behavior change
Woman wants to lose weight
She has reasons to do it…
She has reasons NOT to do it…
At any given time the weights she assigns to the pros and
cons change…INSTANTLY
If she consistently does the things that she needs to do to
lose weight, she likely will…
If she does not, she likely will not…
To lose weight she will have to consistently act upon her
reasons to do it, rather than her reasons not to. She
will not be able to be ambivalent and hold the reasons
to and not to at equal weight.
It makes sense why you have
chosen what you have chosen.
 Whether you like the end product or final allocation,
the process has made sense and you likely had good
reason in each moment to do what you did.
 Given what you did, you likely did with good reason,
what makes you think you won’t do the same thing
under the same circumstances in the future?
Exercise 5: What needs to change
for you choose differently in the
future?
Transtheoretical Model
 Precontemplation is the stage in which people are not
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intending to take action in the foreseeable future, usually
measured as the next six months.
Contemplation is the stage in which people are intending
to change in the next six months.
Preparation is the stage in which people are intending to
take action in the immediate future, usually measured as
the next month.
Action is the stage in which people have made specific
overt modifications in their life-styles within the past six
months.
Maintenance is the stage in which people are working to
prevent relapse but they do not apply change processes as
frequently as do people in action. They are less tempted to
relapse and increasingly more confident that they can
continue their change.
Exercise 6: What stage are you in?
Take one of your priorities in which you would like to
reallocate more time.
 What stage of change are you currently in according to
the Transtheorectical model?
 What do you think you will have to do to change the
decisional balance consistently enough to move you to
the next stage? (Remember that something has to give
with each change)
 And the next stage?
 And the next stage…until you reach maintenance?
Exercise 7: List ‘em!
Think about your own unique situation.
Think outside the box…what are three to five ways in
which you can take action toward better work life
balance?
2. What will you have to give up or do differently? (Take
oreos rather than home baked cookies)
3. What will you gain? (Time for self-care)
4. How can you take some of these action steps and move
them to habit or maintenance?
1.
Exercise 8: Five Year Pilot Plan
What do you think is reasonable to strive to change in
the first year?
…second year?
…third year?
…fourth year?
…are we there yet?
…fifth year?
A little advice from Stephen R. Covey
1) take responsibility for, and become the
creative force of, our lives;
2) decide what’s most important in our whole
lives–developing a vision and deep
commitment to the “first things” of life and;
3) to then put those first things first and
organize our lives around our priorities.
Questions and Comments
Contact Information
Rebecca Kennedy, PhD
Director,
Health and Counseling Services
Bldg. 19, Room 106
(850) 474-2420
rkennedy@uwf.edu
References
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Covey, S.R., Merrill, A.R. & Merrill, R.R. (1997). First things first every day : because where you're
headed is more important than how fast you're going. New York : Simon & Schuster.
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Prochaska, J.0. & DiClemente, C.C. (1984). The transtheoretical approach: Crossing traditional
boundaries of therapy. Homewood, IL: Dow Jones Irwin.
Prochaska, J.O., Velicer, WE, DiClemente, C.C., Guadagnoli, E., & Rossi, J.(1990). Patterns of change:
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guides you through 5 practical steps toward better work-life balance. Retrieved October 15, 2009,
from http://www.webmd.com/balance/guide/5-strategies-for-life-balance