Finding a healthy family-work-life balance isn’t easy. And it isn’t getting any easier. This is especially true in our hustle-and-bustle society. Finding our family-work-life balance means recognizing that time for family, income-generating activities, and personal self-care are all vital. Family, work priorities, and everyday life (such as self-care, leisure activities, and personal projects) are all important. Finding a family-work-life balance is not about giving all three of these areas equal attention. Different seasons of life will have different priorities.
In other words, family, work, and life priorities will all rotate in and out of being out number-one priority. Balance isn’t about dividing time equally. Instead, it’s about understanding that each of these areas is important, getting into a healthy rhythm of attending to each one (even if it’s only in small doses), and creating patterns where each area does is a number-one priority sometimes.
In other words, finding a perfect work-life balance is a myth. However, attaining a healthy rhythm is possible. Just know that accomplishing this requires intentionality and effort.
This is why I was so excited to connect with my friend Ray Brehm. Ray is one of the most productive entrepreneurs I know. Seriously! I often wonder When does this dude find time to sleep? He’s also an amazing family man who loves spending time with his wife and kids. During our recent Thriving at Home Summit, I had the honor of interviewing Ray and learning his secrets.
In this post, you’ll find some of my key takeaways on finding family-work-life balance from Ray!
Finding Family-Work-Life Balance
- Know that the new normals of 2020 really can work well for you and your family. For many people, this year has been a struggle. But it can also be a year of finding a better family-work-life balance.
- Simple strategies like locking the office door when we are deep in work, including our children in the calendar (letting them know precisely when the “crunch times” are), and including them in the family business, can all work to our advantage.
- 2020 can be a year of learning new skills that everyone gets to keep after social distancing is done. Many of these skills will be in the area of computers and increased technology skills.
Family-Work-Life Balance with Communication and Strategy
- Inclusion in the family business is a trick to keep the family and business balanced.
- Children can learn about work and business by watching their parents work.
- The key is having “lock the door” times, “unlock the door” times, and “jump in the pool” times. This is family-work-life balance at its best.
- Seeing what mom and dad are working on helps our kids to better understand what work is about. It also helps them gain real-world education and expand their own creativity.
Getting Started
- Getting started with family-work-life balance can be as easy as finding aspects of your job that your kids are already interested in and encouraging them to explore. This can be as easy as encouraging them two write alongside you, watch you edit a video, or using a Shark Tank Game for older, entrepreneurial-minded kids.
- Kids can also teach themself to type with simple online courses and games.
- Our kids often know more about technology than we realize, and it’s never too early to bring them into a family business in small ways.
- Another key is to focus your mind on the present. If you’re in the pool with your kids, be fully there. If you are learning new skills, be there 100%. And when you are working, focus totally on that. Finding work-life-family balance works best when we are fully present in each moment!
- When discovering your work-life-family balance, unrelenting optimism will serve you well.
Diving Deeper into Finding Work-Life-Family Balance
I love Ray’s passion for entrepreneurial work, self-care time, and caring for his family. If you’d like to dive deeper, you may want to check out the all-access pass to our Thriving at Home Summit and check out Ray’s entire interview.
For more great insights from the Thriving at Home Summit, be sure to check out the following posts:
- Raising Girls: Practical Parenting Advice and Dad Wisdom
- Dads Matter: Understand The Father Effect and Overcome Old Wounds.
- I’m a Blended Family Dad: Here’s what all blended families should know.
Continuing the Conversation
Jenny and I would love to continue the conversation in the comments below!
- What are you already doing to find work-life-family balance?
- Which of the positive parenting skills in this post resonated the most with you?
- Which of these ideas have you already used, and which ones do you plan on putting into action?
- What thoughts on finding work-life-family balance would you add to this conversation?
Just add your thoughts to the comments below!
