For decades, we’ve been told to chase “work-life balance,” as if our professional and personal lives exist on opposite sides of a scale.

However, the reality is that they’re not opposing forces. They’re actually deeply intertwined.

The phrase “work-life balance” first gained traction in the 1980s, when workers, especially women, began advocating for flexibility, parental leave, and more humane schedules. Those were critical changes. But the idea of balance itself oversimplified a far more complex reality.

Balance implies that life can be neatly distributed: equal parts career, family, rest, and purpose. But we don’t live in a world of neat distribution, we live in cycles. And the pursuit of balance, for most, leads to frustration or burnout.

A 2022 Gallup report found that 60% of employees feel emotionally detached at work, and 19% are outright miserable. Much of that exhaustion stems from the impossible expectation that we must maintain constant, equal energy for all areas of our lives at once.

The truth is, great leadership isn’t balanced, it’s seasonal.