Life and work: The ultimate balancing act

We all ponder the age-old balancing act between our work life and what I would call, our life that matters. 

There is no perfect balance, regardless of what anyone may tell you.  In the end, you are the only one that will know your appropriate balance after some honest introspection.  What is the key then to weighting that scale in a direction that keeps you from going tilt?

My balance, which works for me, is God first, family second; work third, everything else after that.  I believe firmly in the Matthew 6:33 way of thinking, “But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides. (AMP)”  As for you, it is a matter of focus, evaluation and implementation.

The Bureau of Labor and Statistics, in a 2008 release on how people split up their time in their lives, found several things:

-On average, people worked 7.6 hours per day, while men worked about one hour more;

-Approximately 21 percent of people did some amount of work at home;

-People engaged in slightly more than five hours of leisure activity of some sort, including watching TV;

-About two hours out of the 24 was spent involved in all types of interaction with the family.

Of course, there are all sorts of exceptions to these stats, but it gives you an idea of how people spend their time, for the most part.

In the end though, are you happy with the balance in your life?  How much joy do you glean from the “stuff” you do each day?  Here is a sad, yet interesting statistic I found while researching this. The Onion, an online newspaper recently reported on the amount of happiness we all derive as we walk around in our lives.  The answer is going to shock you, guaranteed.  Of the 24 hours we spend each day, on average, we are happy only 13-seconds of that time.  Now, The Onion is famous for having tongue firmly planted in cheek, on some of their items, but this is really kind of a trip when you think about it.  13-seconds?

The question then is, do you think that is accurate for your life?  Do you think 13-seconds is a stretch or is just about right, or five times too much?

More questions:

-Is the key to life cramming more in or being more judicious with what you carve out time to do?

-Is work your distraction for a life unfulfilled?

If you notice your balance is off, what can you do to fix it?  The folks at WebMD put together a list of tips to get your off kilter, back on track.  Give it a read and make a change.