In the fast-paced world of medical billing leadership, your days are undoubtedly a whirlwind of phone calls, meetings, and a ceaseless influx of emails. After the workday ends, you may find yourself hastily exiting the office or shutting down your laptop, eager to spend cherished moments with your family, savor dinners with friends, or carve out time for a gym session to decompress the day. But then, a call comes you feel you should take, or you get home, and instead of enjoying your dinner and catching up with your family about their day, your mind has drifted to the next day’s agenda. So, after dinner, while you’d like to relax by indulging in your latest Netflix show, you open up your laptop—again— in the neverending race to get ahead.
It’s easy to get through a week only to get to the next and feel like you’re always counting down to Friday. Days often blur into one another, leaving you with too few hours to meet your multifaceted schedule demands. You’re successful in medical billing because of your dedication. However, while you engage in the weekly juggling act, you may bear the weight of guilt, fearing that other vital aspects of your life, such as your health or family, are getting shortchanged.
The world needs more leaders in medical billing, but being the best leader means putting yourself first.
October 10th marks World Mental Health Day. a day dedicated to raising awareness about mental health issues and promoting mental well-being worldwide. So, before you put one more to-do on your list or tap out the next email, take a deep breath and give yourself a few minutes of solitude. Read on, and take note of the reminders below to prime you for moving harmoniously toward your personal and business goals.
Strive For Harmony Over Balance
We’ve all consumed countless books and attended numerous talks on time management, hoping someone has the secret to achieving the elusive work-life balance. You’re sure someone has figured out how to keep all the plates spinning at equal speed—a busy medical billing company, family, friends, and personal interests.
But let’s challenge the traditional notion of balance and aim for something more attainable: harmony. Balance infers that all priorities deserve equal attention and energy, while harmony gives us permission to set priorities for seasons of life and work.
This simple perspective shift allows you to place greater significance on one part of your life during a particular season.
Craft Your Work-Life Harmony Plan
Now, with a mindset move to thinking about harmonious living, you must honestly assess your priorities. Here are a few questions to help you determine your current highest priorities.
- What is presently bringing me joy?
- What do I most want to influence right now?
- What can I delegate to others?
- What investments of my time will likely bring the highest ROI for my personal life or profits?
Keep in mind that prioritizing one aspect of your life doesn’t diminish the importance of others—you don’t have to pick one thing and toss out another. It’s not about all or nothing. For instance, if your work demands more attention right now, it doesn’t mean your personal life should take a back seat. It does, however, mean that you might consider speaking with your loved ones about why you need to focus more on your work this month, assuring them that when you spend time together, you’ll commit to being completely present. Conversely, if you decide to wrap up work a bit early to enjoy a weekly pickleball game with your neighbor, it doesn’t indicate a waning passion for your profession. You’re simply defining what holds more significance at this point in time, and the satisfaction you derive from properly placed priorities will spill over into other areas of your life.
Communicate Your Priorities Effectively
You’ve identified what’s currently important to you and feel good about where you’ve placed your focused attention and energy. To protect your plan, however, you’ll need to communicate your needs to those around you.
Harmony knows boundaries.
If you plan to leave the office after lunch every Thursday to pick up your kids and spend the afternoon at their soccer game, let your work team know your plan and the process to relay information to you and when they should expect a response. Should they email you? Would you like a Voxer message? Is there someone you’d like them to defer to until you return to work?
Once you’ve set and communicated your boundaries, you must commit to holding yourself to them. If you start blurring the lines, others will, too. It will take a little time to retrain your habits, and you may need to give relevant parties reminders. The gain of achieving more time or results where you’ve invested yourself will be well worth the commitment.
Remain Flexible And Regroup When You Must
Achieving success in your medical billing career and enjoying life pleasures doesn’t require sacrificing one for the other. You can increase your profits and have more time for occasional travel, diving into your hobbies, or sideline cheering your kids at their weekly sporting events.
Begin the journey to life harmony by being honest with yourself about your priorities, creating a plan, and communicating it to those who need to know. Then, expect the life curveballs, as they always come. Trust that you can regroup and reset your goals, and remember that you’re not looking for a perfect balance between work and life but instead to find harmony among all the essential pieces of your life that work uniquely for you,