What are the most important three things in your life? I was recently asked this question. I responded “My faith in God, my family and my career.” I am also passionate about how I can have the three things be integrated together.
This where it takes effort on your part. They are not like three rooms in a house. In a house, you can just leave one room and walk into another and leave the first behind. It is not the same with your faith, family and career. They effect each other at all times. If you try to keep them separate, you will have trouble on your hands.
Do you know people that put their careers above everything else? What happened to their personal relationships? Did they suffer? Did they start to work more on weekends and church became a thing of the past? This same effect happens if the others are out of balance by too much. This philosophy of integrating these aspects of your life is the basis for my website and books.
For the majority of my career life, I have struggled with this balance. I worked for bosses/companies that felt that you should drop everything in your life and make work your number one priority. I did not enjoy this environment and never felt like I was successful, but all along tried to oblige. My family suffered. I tried to integrate my faith into my work, and saw some successes on a small scale, but wanted a bigger impact.
I became passionate about it a few years ago. I figured out that it was possible to get that balance. It means being more vocal about your beliefs. You have to treat your staff and co-workers with that same respect of personal life as you want for yourself. The attributes that God wants you to have must be taken to work with you. I found out that it really works. You can develop a much stronger team and reduce the stress in your life. Your career will blossom.
Have faith in God that He will take care of you. Put more focus on your family and let that time be very important when around them. The cell phone can be ignored when going out to dinner. Those e-mails can wait. If you take a vacation, remember that it is a vacation. Use the time to wind down and relax. Maybe you still have to do some work, but schedule it where it will not play an effect on your family, who need your attention.
I would like to hear from you on how you succeed in balancing the top priorities in your life. They may be different than those of mine. No matter what they are, they need to integrate together.
