BALANCED LIFESTYLE

The First Step to Finding the Work You Love: Creating and Maintaining a Balanced Life

To be successful as a person and a Christian one must create and maintain a well balanced life. Having a successful career without success spiritually, socially, physically, financially, and with your family is no success at all. Measurable goals should be established in all of these areas. With goals in place for all areas of life, a person can focus on finding work that will promote and support a balanced lifestyle. Most of us have skills sufficient to do many different jobs. What separates work from work we enjoy is the infusion of values, passions, dreams, and one’s personality into your work.

A personal mission statement is a way to summarize the life you wish to live, and it should include your skills, interests, personality traits, values, dreams, and passions. Take time to write your mission statement to summarize who you are, what you want to accomplish with your life, and how you will follow through with implementing your strategy for experiencing life to its fullest with God’s leadership and direction. An example would be: “I want to be known by my family as a loving and caring Christian husband and father, by my business associates as a fair and honest person, and to my friends as someone they can count on in time of need. I will invest love, service, time, patience, encouragement, and creativity in these relationships.”

What will be your legacy? How do you wish to be remembered? It is important to do a regular check-up on how well you are doing toward maintaining a balanced life and accomplishing your short term, intermediate goals, and long term goals. Physically how is my health, appearance, and exercise? Financially how is my giving, my saving, and my investments? How is my personal development in the areas of knowledge, education, and self-improvement? How are my family relationships? How is my spiritual growth and maturity? How is my social life with family, friends, and community involvement? Finally, how are my career ambitions, dreams, and hopes?

Once a balanced life is in place you are ready to focus on finding and keeping the work you love.

Above information taken from “48 Days to the Work You Love” by Dan Miller.