Balancing Work and Life From a Business Owner’s Perspective

I come from a family of entrepreneurial business owners. My Grandfather, my Dad, and both of my brothers at some point have owned and operated businesses. Being an entrepreneur and a business owner has always come very natural to me; however, finding and maintaining a healthy balance between business and personal life has always been a challenging pursuit. I’ve seen first hand the extremes and affects of this balancing act when done poorly versus very well.

There have been many books written on this topic of perfecting the juggling act of career and personal life and all the sub-categories therein. The concepts in these books discuss being intentional and smart with delegating, setting boundaries, following a schedule, being present, etc., in order to separate your work from your personal life. While these concepts and principles are very solid, the more recent information that I find on this topic is less about compartmentalizing and more about a holistic approach that involves self-awareness, focus, and doing meaningful work that you are gifted to do. I think Steve Jobs said it best, "Do what you love and you’ll love what you do," or something close to that. Therefore, a good place to start is to be intentional about finding the type of work and contribution to your business that you are passionate about and wired to do.

How to Balance Work and Life

I firmly believe that unplugging from work and being intentional about getting the right amount vacation rest is very important in order to refresh and gain perspective. However, I lean towards the holistic approach as opposed to building silos that separate personal life and business life. I am finding that the key to this approach is focus. That means when I am doing something with my family, I try to be in the present moment and focused on engaging and enjoying the "here and now" as opposed to letting my mind drift towards work related issues and distractions. As a small business owner, this is easier said than done, but when I am intentional about living in the present moment, everything from work to play to relationships seem better. If we don’t learn how to live in and appreciate the moment, then we’ll miss out on a lot of memories.

We live in a fast paced world and the advancement of communication technologies over the past several years has only sped things up a notch. So a big part of focusing, living in the moment, and keeping perspective is to set your own pace and align that pace with how you can best contribute to your business. In other words, take control of the pace as opposed to it controlling you. Dallas Willard is quoted saying, "Ruthlessly eliminate hurry!" To me that means starting with the Sabbath, seeking out the rhythms of life that God created us to operate in, and consistently taking time to relax, pray, and enjoy God and your family.

The best approach I’ve found to this balancing act is to find your passion, discover your pace, focus on the moment at hand, and stop to smell the roses. Oh and by the way, once you have a handle on being balanced and operating in your sweet spot relative to growing your business, contact us to help take your organization’s digital marketing distractions off your plate so you can spend more time doing what God has gifted you to do.