If you ask a successful person what they do for fun, the odds are high that they will look at you funny. Successful people tend to say that they would do what they do even if they had enough money that they never had to work again. How do successful people find a way to enjoy what they have to do when normal people make a distinction between what they have to do (work) and what they want to do (play)? By choosing paths where what they have to do is clearly necessary for what they want; they choose their work based on their purpose, and they understand how it directly contributes to it.
In recent years, more and more people are seeking what they call work/life balance. Instead of seeing work as something you do to finance what you want to do, your purpose can help you see it as something you get to do, like everything else you choose, to advance your purpose.
In truth, there is no such thing as balance, just priority. For example, for many, the priority of family exceeds the priority of work for money. For these, there is a point at which the needs of work must sublimate to the needs of family. There is no need to artificially juggle the two; the one is subordinate to the other. So it is with all contending pieces in one’s life.
Your purpose, in conjunction with your values and beliefs, is the key to defining the priority of everything in your life. Much more will be said about this in the “Values” chapter.