Have Faith in Creating a Work Life Balance

Are you having trouble trying to find the right work life balance that suits your needs? For many people, this is a very hard task to accomplish. This can be especially difficult to tackle during these hard economic times.

With so many people becoming victims to company terminations and layoffs, it usually leaves the remaining employees overwhelmed with a heavy workload. If you are experiencing a hard time adjusting to your new job responsibilities, maybe the following tips will help you.

Don’t Let Your Passion for Work Consume You

The key is to find a healthy work life balance that enables you to provide a stable income for your family while being able to spend time with them as well. If you have a strong passion for your job, by all means, perform each job task to the best of your ability. However, you need to know where to draw the line.

Understand that you can't do it all by yourself. Be willing to pitch in and fill the void that has been created by your ex co-workers, but stick to a regular work schedule. Don’t become a workaholic and ignore your family in the process. Family life is a very important component in leading a desirable Christian life.

Don’t Feel Guilty for Loving Life

You have a life outside of work. Don’t let your employer guilt you into not living and loving life. With the convenience and scope of today’s technology, you have the option and capability to work almost anywhere. As long as you have a laptop and cell phone, you can pretty much conduct business anywhere.

Many employers are aware of this fact. Actually, many employers will provide the necessary tools in order for you to conduct business on a 24 hour basis. Unfortunately, instead of making work easier, this kind of constant contact can sometimes make it harder to separate work from home life.

 

This kind of ready availability of contact doesn't allow you to create a healthy work life balance. As a result, you have to resist the urge or need to work more than your required hours.

Uphold Your Convictions

Within today’s economy and working environment there are many changes. Businesses are demanding more from their employees. You must be willing to uphold your convictions if any of these new employment changes interfere with your family life.

If you find that an employer wants you to work hours or perform tasks that interfere with your Christian lifestyle, you have to stand your ground. Taking this course of action may interfere with your working relationship, but you have to make the necessary adjustments in order to ensure that you will have a good work life balance.

 

Studies have proven that happy employees are much more productive, so be firm with your manager or employer about your need to create some time for your family obligations.

 

If you worry about the potential side effects of being assertive about your need for personal time, then try to remember the reasons you're working so hard in the first place. Think about how much of your time your family receives and compare this with how much they actually get from you.

Have Faith in the Lord

Making these types of work related decisions may seem tough. Unfortunately, they are necessary in order to ensure the type of Christian work life balance that you envision. You have to stand by your beliefs even within the capacity of work.

Depending on your place of employment, this may be easier to plan than accomplish. However, you must have faith that the Lord will guide you during these difficult times. Have faith that he will help you to provide a stable income for your family without having to sacrifice valuable family time.

 

MP

A New Year’s Resolution On Personal Finance

A new year's resolution to clean out your receipt drawer is always a good idea.  Start fresh this year and take your personal finances seriously.  This last year was tough on everybody’s wallet.  This year start your financial life on the right path.

 

The best thing you can do for your personal finances is evaluate where your money is actually going.  Print out bank account activity, look up credit card bills.  Take a moment to contemplate what you are spending your money on right now.  Break down in your mind or on a piece of paper different categories.  Lump up similar items to evaluate how much you spend on them. 

 

Ask yourself the following questions:

• Is this how much I thought I was spending on this type of item?
• How much does this mean I spend on this type of item throughout the year?  If it is a monthly expense multiply it by 12, a weekly expense 52, etc.
• How else could I have spent that money?
• Is this item a priority?
• How does this translate into my wage?  If you make $15 an hour and you are spending $150 a month on coffee, is your coffee worth over a day of working.

 

Now think about how you would like this year to be different.  Ask yourself the following questions:

• What is a major financial goal that I have been putting off?  This could be the purchase of a new car, house or vacation.
• How much would it cost to attain that goal?
• Did I spend that money needlessly last year?
• What am I willing to do without in order to attain that goal?

 

By now you should have a pretty good idea of how you have been spending your money.  You should also have a picture of what you would like to do from now on.  The question remains how you go about changing your finances. 

 

There are a variety of ways you can keep track of your money.  The key is to find a way that works for you.  For some people visual clues work better, for others it is the act of using cash.  Still others prefer to keep reminders of the goals they are working towards.  Here are a few tips you can use.  Feel free to try them all until you find the way that works the best for you.

 

Always pay with cash, never use credit.  You can withdraw cash every week and put into envelopes assigned to different type of items or you can simply keep cash in your wallet.  Once the money is gone you must wait till the next week for more. 

 

Decorate your space with your goal.  Post a picture on your bathroom mirror, fridge or workspace about a house, car or vacation spot. 

 

Keep a spending journal.  Write it all down, fifty cents for a paper to $45 at dinner.  Write down what you spent, how you spent and what else you could have spent the money on.

 

Starting 2010 with a fresh perspective on your personal finances can make all the difference.  Decide now how you would like to be financially at the start of 2011!

Christian Work Life Balance and Family Values

Simplicity, Family and a Healthy Work Life Balance

Attaining a work life balance that is good for both your work and the rest of your life can be daunting. When you have a family it can be even more intimidating because you have other people who need your attention.

Luckily you don’t have to overwhelmed when the demands of work and those of your family conflict. By developing a habit of simplicity you will be able to find the time to attend to both in such a way that the necessary demands are met.

Simplicity

Living simply means eliminating elements of your life that are not necessary or those that are placing demands on your time that detract from those things that are most important. This can be as straightforward as choosing to limit your television watching or as complex as deciding to sell all the items in your home that you don’t use on a daily basis.

Learning to find joy and love within a simple version of your life will make an effective work life balance much easier to attain. When you simplify life, there are fewer things to focus on and therefore fewer things to balance.

Creating a simple life also gives you more time to focus on the things that are most important to you, because you have removed many of the things that usually distract you from the work life balance you’ve been trying to achieve.

Simplicity also lends itself to a certain mental clarity. When your mind is no longer cluttered with thoughts about different possessions and activities, or when you’re no longer so focused on work to the exclusion of family, you can release a lot of stress and frustration. This clarity can help you focus better on whatever is in front of you, whether it’s your work or your family.

Achieving the Simple Life

Simplifying life looks different for every person, because what you find complicating your neighbor might find incredibly satisfying. However most people who want to simplify life find that eliminating distractions, such as the television, internet, or other media, gives them the time and clarity to focus on what is really important to them.

To figure out what you need to eliminate, look at your priorities and where you actually spend the bulk of your time. If you’re passing significant amounts of time doing activities other than the ones that are high priorities, you should act to eliminate those other activities.

Learning to prioritize your daily tasks can be difficult, especially at work. The demands of your colleagues and employers wanting you to spend more time and effort at work can seem impossible to say no to, but anything that’s keeping you from your priorities is not something you want in your life. So evaluate and simplify life and you’ll be better off for it.

Family

Many Christians choose to maintain a simple life for the sake of their family. When your life and your mind are cluttered with unnecessary stress, it can be difficult to find a balance between work and family life. However the clarity that comes from simplicity can help you find this balance.

Choosing simplicity is often another way to choose your family, because you decide to place your focus at home instead of on other things. The long-term benefit of reducing stress, building a stronger bond within your family and achieving a good work life balance will be worth it in the end.

Finding a Balance

When it comes down to it, finding the right work life balance that’s best for you and your family is an individual decision. However cultivating habits of simplicity can give you the time and clarity of mind to focus on what is truly important.

We have some great reports on this topic in our Reports section.

Finish Strong,

Matt Peters

Balancing the Family Budget and being Good Stewards

Household money management tasks are traditionally relegated to one member of the home while everyone else tends to trust it’s all being taken care of. Unfortunately when it’s left to one person to take care of the major things, other family members often tend to overlook some spending patterns that can threaten family goals.

Creating a family budget can help make your financial future much smoother, but when you work together as a family to discuss the budget you may find there are several positive side-effects.

In most families, a family budget is usually just a simple list of bills that need to be paid and the amount of income that is available to be allocated for spending money. By sitting down one evening each month as a family and talking through the financial obligations that must be met, you instill a sense of awareness within your children of the responsibilities you face.

When you include your children in family financial discussions they can often develop an awareness of how their own spending patterns can affect the entire family unit. Many teenagers learn to modify their spending behavior when they understand the implications of their actions and see the size of the bills they helped to generate.

You also have the benefit of including the entire family in setting some goals for debt reduction and building savings. It’s much easier to work on important money management tactics when you have the full support and enthusiasm of your loved ones behind you.

If sitting down as a family to work through a family budget together is a new concept, you may initially feel some discomfort talking about bills and debts that are usually hidden away and dealt with alone. Your children may also find talking about money a little boring or complain that it’s not their responsibility.

To help alleviate some of their boredom, discuss their own financial contributions to the household. This might mean completing some simple chores in order to help out around the home, which creates a little extra free time for mom or dad. It might mean helping them to understand how their actions can affect the size of your utility bills. No matter what tactic you use, include them and their responsibilities into the family discussion and they’ll be more interested as they become aware of their place within a loving Christian family unit.

God has called us to be good stewards of the gifts he provides us.

Learning to be good stewards of money begins at a young age, so try to find ways to include feedback from all family members. All suggestions into money management decisions should be considered valid and any kind of input should be encouraged. However the final decisions for major purchases should be reached by consensus and discussion with the entire family given a voice.

Your children’s opinions and suggestions are valid and if they have questions about why the family budget is so important, take time to answer their questions. You’re all a part of a loving Christian family and you each have the right to contribute to making the financial decisions that affect all of you.

Perhaps the biggest benefit of creating time to discuss the money management decisions of the family budget is building a stronger bond within your family. When you’re all working together on common goals, you develop a sense of unity that can strengthen the family unit.

Finish Strong.

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