Life is ever-changing. We go through many different seasons during our years, especially during the years that we are building a career. Moments of highs and lows are inevitable and it never seems that life and work balance.

So, how do you keep them separate? Even more important, how do you keep your head above water at work when your life is falling apart at home or vise versa?

This is no easy feat. If you’re being pulled several different ways physically and mentally, it can take a toll. However, keeping these two things as separate as possible will keep you more mentally stable. But, how can you do that?

We tend to carry our burdens back and forth from work to home and home to work.  I cannot stress enough, do not do this.

I know this is hard. Trust me.

However, doing this can cause many issues at both places and is worth an effort to make it a priority. This is even more important if you’re a leader in your place of employment. Confiding in your team or carrying a bad attitude around can lower the moral of your team. If you’re carrying your work-related problems home with you, you’re losing out on precious time with your family and loved ones. They deserve the best of you. Yes, even when you are falling apart in other areas. Mental health is important. I do not encourage bottling feelings or never speaking to someone about how you feel. I just encourage you to do so at the right times and to the right people. You will be glad you did this long term.

Find an outlet. We can go on for days, weeks, months, and even years just getting by and feeling like at any moment we could snap and give up on it all. This is a very unhealthy habit. We all need somewhere we can unload and free our mind and body of the stress we’ve been carrying around. This will look different for everyone. Find a book, go to the gym, sit by the lake, or whatever makes you feel like a breath of fresh air. This will not only allow you to start fresh each and every time you’re able to do so, but it will allow you to release the stress from work and at home. Doing so will lessen the chances of you carrying either over to the other.

If something is going well and it makes us feel good. What do we tend to do? We continue to do whatever it is that is making us feel that way, right?

I find that all too often when someone is having issues in their personal life, they just wrap up in work. Why? Well, they can work hard and hopefully see results. They can forget about all the things that are making them feel stressed and unhappy if they just spend all their time in an area of life that is making them filled with joy. Do not do this. When you finally must face your spouse, your boss, that financial situation or whatever the case may be, it’s going to be just as stressful if not more because it was ignored. Don’t hide and wrap yourself up into the feel-good part of your life. Just create more of it.

It’s nearly impossible to keep your career and your personal life completely separated and in ways, we don’t want to. We want to share our joys, our successes, failures with those we love most and those we spend a lot of our time with. However, you must know when to do so in order to keep that balance. This holds even truer when your career or personal life is falling apart. It will only create a bigger problem if we aren’t sure to practice the things mentioned above.

All good things must come to an end and the hard times won’t last forever. In the seasons that we go through, we must remind ourselves that they will all come to an end. Some sooner than others. On the most glorious days, soak it in and enjoy every ounce of happiness and joy. On the toughest days, remind yourself why you are fighting so hard and the purpose of why you keep pushing on. Finally, follow the old saying “this too shall pass.” It will get you through the hardest of days and remind you to soak up the best ones. Remembering this will help you to just let go and leave work where it belongs and vise-versa.