Béatrice Bernard-Poulin explains that people are increasingly looking for a better balance between their personal and professional lives and are seeking well-being.

Forgetting the 9 to 5, traditional schedules, achieving a work-life balance and finally earning your living the way you want, is it possible? Author of the book Hello, dream job!, web entrepreneur, speaker and blogger Béatrice Bernard-Poulin believes that there are many avenues to achieve the career you want. But we must start by asking ourselves a fundamental question: what do we really want to do in life? Next, you must methodically examine what you need to do to achieve your goals.

Béatrice Bernard-Poulin has published her new book with Éditions Logiques.

Béatrice Bernard-Poulin notes that the world of work is undergoing rapid transformation and that old models no longer hold water, except for certain professions where presence is essential at a specific time.

“Personally, I am self-employed, so I withdrew a little from that system many years ago. But when I did interviews for the book and also when I spoke with my friends and my professional colleagues, I realized that there is really an awareness about time and about the quality of life.

But this awareness comes at a time when there is extreme inflation. “Everything is getting more and more expensive. Cars and houses are becoming more and more expensive. We need more time for ourselves. We know that it is not healthy to work 70 to 80 hours a week. You can have a busy week, but doing it all the time isn’t healthy.”

We also need money more than ever. “We have to find the best solution for us. I think there are plenty of people who are thinking about this and asking themselves the question: how do I navigate all these changes?”

Solutions?

Does she have any possible solutions? “What I often say to people is probably inspired by the FIRE (early retirement) movement. How much does the life of my dreams cost? How much does this life cost me? What salary do I want to have?

We must then ask ourselves what salary we need to live on. “If someone lives in the woods and grows their vegetables, maybe it will be $30,000. For someone for whom the trip is important, who has children and financial responsibilities, perhaps the amount will be $100,000.”

Then, you have to ask yourself if your current career allows you to have access to this salary. “Should I have a second job? Should we change domain?

Toxic Productivity

In her book, Béatrice Bernard-Poulin also talks about the culture of toxic productivity (the hustle). “Around me, people are realizing more and more that they cannot be productive from 8 a.m. Monday morning to 5 p.m. Friday. If you don’t stop, at some point your brain will no longer be able to provide.”

“We know more and more about the fact that at a given moment, our brain gets a certain amount of fatigue from making decisions, from doing things that require a mental load. And if we add to that the mental load at home, at some point, we will unfortunately fart at the fret.”

She adds that sometimes you need a sad event like a burnout or an illness so that people can relax and take a little more time.

Hello, dream job!

Béatrice Bernard-Poulin

Logical Editions

280 pages

Béatrice Bernard-Poulin is a web entrepreneur.
She is the creator of the Art de vivre blog and the Béatrice online store, which offers, among other things, budgeting tools.
She is also the author of the financial organization program The year that counts and the bestselling book Being an adult is expensive! reissued in 2023.

“I developed a system that allows me to plan the time needed to complete all my tasks – and have free time. I start by writing down everything I have to do the following week on Friday, so I don’t have to think about it on the weekend or urgently on Monday morning. Then, at the end of each day, I take five minutes to write down my tasks for the next day, limiting myself to five tasks maximum. At the end of the week, I write down what I ACTUALLY did (spoiler: this is never what was indicated at the start of the week!). At the end of the month, I list what I accomplished in the last thirty days.”