Show me a person that has a well balanced relationship with their work, and I'll show you a more confident, more productive and more satisfied worker and employer!
About 20 years into my professional career I experienced a fantastic revelation of clarity regarding my relationship to working that I want to share with you. It led to a seismic shift in overall life productivity and satisfaction - in the corporate business environment, in the volunteer ministry environment and in the home environment!
I want to suggest to you that if you can remove the work-relationship stress that you have, then you just might be addressing the root cause of imbalance in other parts of your life!
Left unchecked, we know what happens: the problem snowballs into the undesirable compromising of our passions, our talents, our skills, our creativity, our growth and eventually our productivity slides. Then ultimately our personal work satisfaction abates, our confidence and self esteem erode and off we go to another job. And the greatest tragedy in this cycle is when we never really address the root cause of the problem!
The question to the problem is: How do we get balanced with our work?
The answer is really believing these 3 statements of work relationship balance: Our employer tells us what to do. We do it as well as we can. And then they pay us. That's it. Mission completed! All deliverables made!
If your employer owes you nothing else and you expect nothing else, then you will have a more balanced relationship with your work.
For 20 years I let my relationship with my job define whom I was. I "chameleoned" to meet whatever I thought my supervisors, my peers, my customers and my direct reports wanted or needed from me. I did it so well that my job defined me, and I didn't even realize what was happening. Heck, I'm sure the fact that I was reasonably successful even contributed to my willingness to let my job define me!
It was an unbalanced relationship because I gave others too much power, and then I took too much power, and then I gave others too much power, and up and down like on a see-saw we went.
(OK, I admit the word picture of a see-saw teetering up and down is intended to illustrate the absence of equal weights balancing!)
And when my desire to change the dynamics of my relationship with work became my life's priority; I did change. I began to really listen to what others wanted from me. And then I just delivered to the very best of my ability. And then I accepted the compensation, thankfully and joyfully. I achieved a balanced relationship with my work, and as a result I was (and still am!) able to pursue other passions in my life from a position of Physical, Intellectual, Emotional and Spiritual balance.
I KNOW that good balance is always a good path.
If you have desire for change in your life, I am here, and I am ready to coach you toward balance. Balance is strength. Balance is confidence. Balance is perfect!
One of the important skills for a good personal life coach is to be able to ask a good question. Here is one of my favorite questions that falls within the area of seeking Spiritual balance: What is the difference between faith and religion?
If you want to know my answer you can ask me when we talk. But, what would your answer be?
I am sure that God has a sense of humor. He made me Jewish by blood and Arabic by name. He birthed me into a loving home of atheist parents; He had Buddha marry me, and then to top it all off He graced me with Jesus Christ.
As such, I am uniquely qualified and thoroughly engaged with an understanding of "the spiritual journey". Of course I love my atheist mom and now agnostic dad, and I am in love with Jesus, I am in love with my Jewish aunts, uncles and cousins and I am in love with my Buddhist brother in law and mother in law.
With that kind of background, it should be no surprise that I love to work on the Spiritual part of life balance.
When Jesus Christ was asked what is the most important "law of life", He answered by combining two old testament laws, Deut. 6:5 and Lev. 19:18. I think they illustrate the foundational great truth about life balance, and so the combination of the asking of the question and the supplying of His answer are really at the core of how Balancing PIESTM became the descriptive name of my life balance coaching practice.
Love the Lord your God with all your
strength = Physical
Love the Lord your God with all your
mind = Intellectual
Love the Lord your God with all your
heart = Emotional
Love the Lord your God with all your
soul = Spiritual
Love your neighbor as yourself
= Relational Balance