Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy
Welcome to Day 788 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom
Is Work-Life Balance Possible? - Ask Gramps

Thank you for joining us for our five days per week, wisdom and legacy building podcast. This is Day 788 of our Trek time for our Philosophy Friday series.  Each Friday we will ponder some of the basic truths and mysteries of life, and how they can impact us in creating our living legacy.  As we continue on this trek called life, sometimes we have questions about life, so our Friday trek is a time where we can ‘Ask Gramps.’   Gramps will answer questions that you would like to ask your dad or granddad, but for whatever reason, this is not possible.  No matter how old you are, I know that all of us would like the opportunity to ask dad or gramps questions about life in many areas.  We will address areas such as finances, relationships, health/fitness, business/work, home repairs/renovations, seasons of life, spiritual/Biblical questions, and any others areas that come our way.  As your fellow sojourner and mentor on this trek that we call life, it is my goal to provide you with practical wisdom and advice about any area of life. It is crucial that I receive a constant flow of questions so please submit your questions to guthrie@wisdom-trek.com, and I will answer your questions on our Friday podcast.

We are broadcasting from our studio at ‘The Big House’ in Marietta, Ohio.  Since we did not have to travel to Ft. Myers as anticipated this week, it has been a good week to focus on all the tax related issues for the which need to be completed for our business and our client's businesses before the end of this month.  While on a personal level, we have until April 15th to file tax returns, companies are required to send out the W2s and 1099s by the end of January.  There are also several quarterly and annual returns which have to be filed by the end of the month.  Since we handle these duties for four companies, I utilized this time to complete these requirements.  It is not always easy to balance work-related duties along with ministry, family, and other duties that each of us has in the course of our lives.     So the question for today is:

 

Hey Gramps, “How can I effectively handle the demands of work, family, personal needs, and leisure so I can properly invest sufficient time in each area?”
Is Work-Life Balance Possible?
In our busy technology-driven culture, we all struggle with what is the proper balance in order to accomplish all that we are pressured to complete.  We constantly ask ourselves if we are devoting enough time to family, work, leisure, health, fitness, sleep, socializing, and the various ministries or volunteer activities which we are part of.    It is almost enough to send us ‘over the edge’ on a daily basis.    I continue to ask myself those same questions at times in an effort to make sure that I am prioritizing all aspects of life.

‘Work-Life Balance’ is such a ‘buzz word’ these days that I get tired of hearing the phrase.  While I agree with what is intended by those words, I feel we are approaching it in the wrong manner.  We should not and actually cannot compartmentalize our lives into these different silos or containers.   Life is an integrated fabric which should be woven together and includes all that we are, and all that we do.  This fabric of life should be a beautiful picture of a life well lived.

I see a great danger when we attempt to compartmentalize our lives in such a manner because it leaves it open for potential ethical and moral cracks in certain compartments.  This is one reason we see leaders in churches and business who appear to be loving and Godly people with their families end up having affairs or becoming involved in other questionable practices.