Career Vs. Family: How to Make the Best Choice

There is a stereotype about the inability of people to successfully combine career and personal life. But we live in the XXI century. Our roles in society are determined by different factors. Achievements in career depend on our skills, abilities, and motivation. Add hobbies and family to this, and we get a successful person who can prove the fallacy of this stereotype. But what to do if there is a choice between career and family? Is it possible to combine a career with a family?

Is It Actually So Difficult to Balance Career and Family Life?

Do you spend days and nights at work, forgetting everything and everyone? Or do you work for a few hours and have a family? The problem of choosing between career and personal life can appear in the life of each of us. It is considered that women’s struggle between career and family is a common issue. After all, a man is not asked about taking maternity leave and looking after children. All that he should do is to provide for the family. But if a man is constantly at work, he can’t see his children and wife for weeks, and he comes home when everyone’s asleep, then he and his wife can forget about warmth and a good relationship.

What is more important – career or family? Recently, psychologists and HR-specialists have increasingly used the term “work-life balance,” meaning balance, the harmony of work and personal life, in which a person successfully combines career and family. To find this harmony, a man has to deal with work, solve assigned tasks, not being distracted by personal affairs being at work, but as soon as he leaves work, he has to forget about working problems. Now he is a friend, a family man, and a parent. That is, the whole point is not to mix these two states.

Unfortunately, it’s not so easy to follow this strategy because recent surveys have shown that most people still prefer work, not family.

• 75% of men and 68% of women often stay at work till late;
• 47% of men and 39% of women work on weekends;
• 45% of men and 40% of women do work at home;
• only 15% of men and 23% of women don’t think about work when they are at home.

Relations of spouses are another difficult issue. It may seem that if both are careerists, then everything is not so bad, but everything is smooth as long as a man earns more than a woman. But when the situation changes, scandals may arise. If both partners choose a family, then both are happy and cheerful until financial problems begin. Then a woman forces a man to get food, but as soon as he goes to work, she begins to reproach him with the fact that he is at work all the time and doesn’t pay attention to her. The best option is when one of the partners earns money and the other deals with domestic issues. But what if the one who sits at home is a man? In this case, it is highly doubtful that a couple will have a calm life without a storm of complaints. All these issues can be solved through mutual trust and, possibly, the help of a psychologist. After all, in fact, professional activities and family can perfectly complement each other. Development in any field will help partners maintain interest in each other.

Career Vs. Family: Can You Make the RIGHT Choice?

Today, many people are interested in the question of what is more important between career and family. They need to think over such a serious topic. They are discouraged and even depressed. It seems to them that they should sacrifice something. In fact, this is a big mistake. The decision, of course, must be balanced but definitely go from the heart, and not by coercion. It is necessary to understand in advance that you will have to bear responsibility for the life that you have chosen. It will be only your responsibility. It is completely unacceptable to blame someone for personal failures. Each should live primarily by their own internal beliefs. So, how to understand what to choose: career or family? Let’s try to figure it out.

• Refusal of self-sacrifice. The decision must always be taken independently. After all, if people act for the sake of someone’s whim, then they can no longer live the way their hearts desire. If someone imposes their vision of life on you, you need to think carefully about whether to continue your communication with this person. Such things as manipulation and coercion haven’t yet helped anyone fully understand the situation. Each of us is able to understand what we really need. Self-sacrifice is completely unacceptable because people refuse their own opinion and subordinate their life to certain circumstances in this case. Truly mature people will never shift their responsibility to friends, parents or colleagues. If the inner voice says, “Choose a job, choose a career, choose a family,” then this step should be done without detriment to other spheres of life.
• Joy and happiness. These are the main components of the existence of people, without which success is impossible. Balancing career and family, you need to decide what makes you happy. The fact is that people are all different. Some are inspired by family life and many children, while others think that this kind of life limits them greatly. Only by experiencing joy, we actually become happy. If there are always some disappointments in our life, then we will not be able to make positive plans in the future.
• Right to change your mind. It is important to understand one important thing: no matter what you choose at this stage of your life, there is no need to prove to yourself and others that it is forever. Over time, priorities change, and this is completely normal. Leave yourself the right to change your mind if there are reasons for this. There is no shame in periodically changing your beliefs. We must sometimes make mistakes in order to learn the necessary lessons. You can never take away the right to change your own opinion on a particular issue. Only freedom of choice makes it possible to do the right thing, which is appropriate in a specific period.
• Individual preferences. There is no need to constantly blame yourself for the fact that you are not yet consistent with your inner ideal. Understand your personal preferences and stay true to them. If you have no plans for a big happy family, then you don’t need to constantly reproach yourself. It is not bad if you have aspirations that differ from the majority opinion. However, it takes a certain degree of courage to recognize it. Individual preferences help develop personal experience.
• Financial side. This is also of great importance in the issue, “Career vs. family.” If you depend on a partner for some reason, then it will be extremely unwise to prefer to be left alone. Unfortunately, the financial side is not always within your control. Sometimes you have to think over some things so as not to lose the ground under your feet.
• All-round development. Don’t forget that your individuality shouldn’t suffer in any case. It is necessary to understand the value of comprehensive development. For example, facing women’s struggle between career and family, a person or circumstances may force them to refuse a lot. Then it depends on a woman’s nature whether to agree to it or not. However, it is worth remembering that a strong person can never live in chains, fully submitting to someone else’s will. Choosing a family or career, you must be fully aware of what is happening.
• Self-realization. You can fully realize your aspirations only when there is enough free time for this. Family people are forced to devote a significant part of their lives to loved ones. Balancing career and family, you shouldn’t hurry to get married if self-realization is important to you. Work on yourself takes a long time. It may take time to correct mistakes.

Thus, career, family, love are important components of a happy life. It is best to strive to fully develop your own personality rather than sacrifice something. Harmonious development provides a feeling of happiness. It is necessary to go towards feeling filled with joy.

Choosing Career Over Family – Can You End Up Alone?

Being young, we want to have everything at once. And a career and love is not an exception. Unfortunately, the development of even the most successful career can adversely affect relationships. Some people are able to easily combine work and love, while others don’t succeed at all. But what can you get if you choose a career?

• You like what you do. Favorite work is very useful for mental health because you can constantly improve and grow professionally, raising your self-esteem. Choosing career over family, you clearly know that no one can force you to quit an occupation that you like. In addition, if you refuse things that are important to you, then you refuse some part of yourself.
• Work will never stop loving you. Many business people use this phrase as an excuse for their lack of relationships. But such devotion to work will be exactly as long as some decent person doesn’t charm them. If you are driving your success, it is very nice to control the result. However, when love comes, high ambitions and courage can quickly lift you up the career ladder, but unhappy love will force you to collect pieces of your broken heart and will not let you get up from your knees for a long time.
• When choosing between career vs. family, know that whatever choice you make, people will still condemn you. Some will say that it is necessary to choose a career in order to be a self-sufficient person, others will be amazed, “How was it possible to miss your happiness? After all, love is the main goal in life.” And here you can understand that it is better to choose love and family. And this is what you can lose choosing career.
• True love. Such love can last a lifetime. Even if an office chair guarantees you good money, what do you get in the end? Status? Self-realization? Is it enough to say at the end that life doesn't go to waste?
• Happy future. If you are lucky and have your soulmate, then congratulations – in this case, the choice is much easier. Dating, dating, dating, dating - it is very tiring. Many people are subconsciously looking for experienced and mature people who will become their most faithful partners for life. If you feel that you have found your love, can you really exchange it for a career? After all, love is all you need, isn’t it?

Today, 52% of the world’s workforce is taken by men. Building a career before marriage is considered a generally accepted norm. But this doesn’t mean that you should try to stick to this model too. Remember that a loving person will always support your goals and help you fulfill your long-held dreams. As soon as you realize that it is the one you are looking for – don’t let this person go. True love, unlike work, happens only once in a lifetime, and if you try, you can make it last forever and work will be just a good addition to your happy family.