Work/Life Flywheel

A “flywheel” approach to work and life helps you build career momentum without risking burnout.

The work landscape has dramatically transformed in recent years, with technology facilitating a shift toward remote working, freelancing, and entrepreneurship. Despite the re-imagining of work, attaining a work-life balance remains a common struggle — perhaps because the very notion of such a balance is flawed.

It’s impossible to balance work and life: The factors involved and your needs in relation to both aspects can change moment by moment, day by day. Building the life and career you want requires an alternate system in which the various parts “feed” one another, creating a “virtuous circle” of growth and development. The flywheel model — a term coined by management expert Jim Collins in his bestseller Built to Last — allows for precisely this sort of momentum-building. 

Just as a mechanical flywheel maintains momentum through the harmonious interplay of its components, a flywheel model, whether applied to business or a person’s life and career, works by ensuring all aspects...