Work/Life Balance

I feel like , in my life, when I have heard the phrase, "work/life balance" I think of men.  When this became a complete male gender problem, I don't know!  Maybe because my father worked and my mom stayed home and now my life is the same.  I found it so refreshing to see women in the videos this week struggling with this same issue.  It is no longer a male gender problem for me.  My mind has been opened to the weaknesses of we women also.  We all (male AND female) can have issues with our motivation and priorities.  This week I jotted down some short notes and ideas on this topic to remind me that this is a common problem and that I too can fall short in balancing my life.  Here are my thoughts/notes:

 

Ask "is it worth it?" when decisions arise.

Balance is not a static question, but more dynamic like a swinging pendulum.

Never put yourself in a situation where you can't say no.

Ask yourself the hard questions to find your true motivators.

We owe the world something!

Have regular family meetings where the family is kept informed of business ventures.

Engage your spouse in the business.

We are not in this crazy busy life alone and we all face similar problems.  By determining our motivators and focusing our priorities we can have and achieve a better sense of work/life balance.

License to Pursue Dreams

This week I watched a video for class of Marissa Mayer who works for Google.  She shared that Google started a 20% initiative where employees get to work on personal creative projects for the company on at work.  She shares the success of this initiative.  Half of their new projects submitted came from the 20% initiative.  She says when you give smart, hard working people time to work on what they want to work on, the results would be amazing.  This made me think, what if I gave myself 20% of my time to work on my entrepreneurial dreams?  I have so many little businesses going, what if I had scheduled work time each week to focus on these dreams?  I could make this happen if I turned off the T.V. or turned down one social outing a week.  And the results would be so rewarding. I am almost always not productive with my little bits of free time.  What if I was?  What kind of dreams of mine could I see come real?  I think this 20% initiative in my personal life could be the boost my businesses need.  What if everyone started pursing their dreams and ideas 20% of the time? There would be new innovative products produced, more medical cures discovered, and more success all around.  I am pretty busy with my preschool business and with college classes and being a mom of four.  But this time is NOT spent actually pursuing my dreams.  The time is there....will I embrace it?! First, I will work on my event planning business ideas.

Becoming Rowan

I loved the story I read this week called A Message to Garcia.  It is an ancient story of a man named Rowan during America's war against Spain.  An important message needed to get delivered to a leader, Garcia. Rowan was the man for the job.  He was handed the letter, asked no questions, needed no help, and set off to accomplish the task at hand.  Why are men such as Rowan so difficult to find in this day and age?  Am I a Rowan?  Will I deliver it?  Or will I ask a million questions and need to understand "why" and "how".  We have all worked with someone who is given a task;  they accomplish the task with little to no questions or help.  They do a great job because that is just who they are.  Sometimes I feel like I can be a Rowan.  If I am excited about a task and knowledgeable on the subject, then I am one to do the task well, on time, and with little micro-managing needed.  However, if it is something that I am not interested in (like cleaning the bathrooms) I need a lot of encouragement and constant reminders and micro-managing.  How do we find Rowans to work with?  How do we become a Rowan in all tasks that we encounter?  I think it is an inner gift that we are blessed with but I do think we can train ourselves to become a Rowan.  We can work on our self-reliance, dependability, self-motivation, priorities, goal setting, and time management.  We can be a do-er. When given a task to complete, we are one of action.  People know we are responsible and someone who takes pride in their work.  I want to become a Rowan in ALL tasks I encounter.

Good Things To Come

While I was serving a mission in Romania, I had a really tough day.  Elder Baird, my district leader, gave me such a great gift.  He handed me a wrinkled, well-read copy of Holland's An High Priest of Good Things To Come.  I read it and felt so comforted.  I felt like this bad day was just a small drop in the bucket of life.  Things will get better and God helps us through the hard times.  This talk has brought me comfort so many times in my life.  I just sent it to a friend of my in jail and know that it will help give him perspective and a little bit of peace.  There are good things to come!!  This is what Christ wants for us.  This is why he died for us so we can be happy and filled with peace.  How does this talk relate to business?  I think that growing a business or working at a job we don't love can feel hopeless and pointless.  Times might be hard while we wait for our dream train to come rolling in. But, this too shall pass and the good things will come!  This hope and optimism blesses us through our trials.  With patience and prayer, we will be blessed and our lives will be changed for the better.