The Seed: Finding Purpose and Happiness in Life and Work.

The Seed: Finding Purpose and Happiness in Life and Work

By Jon Gordon

In a perfect world, work and home would balance out neatly. Individuals would work from 8 to 5 each day, take an hour-long lunch, then come home and spend uninterrupted time with their families.

But for those in the wake of the Great Recession, firmly entrenched in an "always on" society, this notion seems outdated. Most are working longer, more stressful hours, and work is spilling into evenings and weekends. A recent survey of North American employees found that 87 percent of respondents say their work/life balance (or lack thereof) is negatively affecting their health.

With so many people suffering from this problem, the natural solution might be to encourage businesses to help their stressed-out employees find more balance in their lives.

But not so, says author Jon Gordon.

"Work/life balance, at least in the sense that most of us think about it, is a myth," says Gordon, author of The Seed: Finding Purpose and Happiness in Life and Work. "It does not exist. For many people, it never has. Personally, I have never been able to balance the scales of work and life on a day-to-day basis. Rather, I've come to realize that the dance between work and life is more about rhythm than balance."

Gordon compares the rhythms of work and life to the rhythms of nature. There's a time and a season for everything.

The Seed: Finding Purpose and Happiness in Life and Work--a business fable similar to Gordon's The Energy Bus--follows Josh, an up and comer in his company, who has lost his passion at work. Challenged by his boss to take two weeks and decide if he really wants to work there, Josh takes off for the country, where he meets a wise farmer who gives him a seed and a promise: Find the right place to plant the seed, and his purpose will be revealed.

Through The Seed, Gordon offers advice on rethinking the concept of work/life balance.

* Let go of the work/life balance notion. Instead, think "purpose and passion."

* Look at the work/life blend over the past year. Consider it as a whole. Rather than thinking of work and life day to...