The work-life balance is dead. By this, I’m not advocating that you should give up your pursuit of having a fulfilling career and a thriving personal life, and I’m definitely not saying that you have to give up one to have the other. I also acknowledge that we have a work-life problem, but I’m arguing that the concept of balance has never been helpful, because it’s too limiting. You see, our language makes a difference, and how we refer to things matters because it affects our thinking and therefore our actions.

    At the minimum, most of us work because we want to be able to support ourselves, our families, and the people around us. In the ideal world, we’re all doing work that we’re proud of and that provides meaning and purpose to us. But even if your job doesn’t give you shivers of joy each new day, working is a part of what each of us does and the contribution we make to society. When you separate work and life, it’s a little bit harder to make that connection. But when you think of work as part of a full life and a complete experience, it becomes easier to see that success in one aspect often supports another.

    Losing your balance and falling isn’t pleasant. A goal to balance suggests that things could quickly get off balance, and that causes terrible outcomes. It’s more constructive to think of solutions that continue to evolve over shifts in life and work. Rather than falling or failing, you may have good days or better days or not-so-good days. These variations are normal, and it’s more useful to think of life as something that is ever evolving and changing, rather than a high-risk enterprise where things could go wrong with one misstep.

    How we talk to ourselves matters, and how we talk about issues makes a difference. Let’s bury “work-life balance” and think bigger and better about work-life fulfillment to do a little less balancing and a lot more living.

解析：C。根据题目中的in an ideal world可定位到原文第二段第二句。第二段第二、三句提到，在理想的世界里，我们都在做令我们引以为豪的工作，这些工作为我们的人生提供了意义和目标。但是，即使你的工作并没有让你在每个新的一天里都心生喜悦，工作也仍是我们每个人都要做的事情，也是我们为社会所做贡献的一部分。C项与此内容相符，其中的meaningful work对应第二段第二句中的that provides meaning，contributes to society对应第二段第三句中的the contribution we make to society，故C项为正确答案。

错项排除：A项利用原文第二段第一句中出现的our families设置干扰，但该句说的是support（养活）自己、家人和身边的人，并不是“改善生活”，也没有提到“朋友”，而且该内容并不属于对理想世界的描述，故A项排除。B项利用在第二段第三句中出现的joy和each new day设置干扰，但原文明确提到，“即使你的工作并没有让你在崭新的每一天都心生喜悦”，B项与此内容不符，故排除。D项中的demanding在原文中未提及，故排除。