Lillie Amman of A Writer’s Words, An Editor’s Eye recently tagged me for this meme on work/life balance. If you’ve been reading WritingThoughts a while, then you know that this is an issue that is near and dear to my heart.
Lillie’s meme invites bloggers to answer any of five questions. I chose to answer all of the questions. Here are the questions with my answers:
- How do you achieve balance in your life? I achieve balance by focusing on the things that are most important and by not overextending myself.
- What is your biggest challenge in balancing your life? My biggest challenge is handling the unexpected. I’m a planner–the type of person who likes to lay out in advance what they’re going to do and how they are going to do it. Dealing with the unplanned challenges me and allows me to grow.
- What are your priorities? I list my priorities in this order: serve God, be there for family and friends, and perform all tasks as though I am doing them for God himself.
- How have your priorities changed over time and why?My priorities have definitely changed over time. My energies are now focused on those things that are eternal: God and people. I used to believe that I would get around to focusing on the important things “later, when I had time.” I’ve come to realize that later may never come and that now is all that I can count on. The time to live according to priorities is now.
- What advice can you share to help all of us balance our own lives? Treat setbacks and obstacles as opportunities for learning and growth. Remember, setbacks and obstacles seldom turn out to be permanent. Even if they do turn out to be permanent, you will view them much differently in five years.
Now it is my turn to tag five bloggers. I pick:
I look forward to seeing the responses.
Contents (c) Copyright 2007, Laura Spencer. All rights reserved.
6 responses so far ↓
1 Lillie Ammann // Apr 6, 2007 at
Great post, Laura. Your answer to how your priorities have changed gives an important message for those who haven’t recognized that the eternal is more important than the temporal. Thanks for participating.
2 Paula Mooney // Apr 6, 2007 at
Thanks for tagging me, Laura. Now I must go into deep and pensive thought over how this whole thing balances out…
While I’m blogging, braiding, buying food, cleaning the carpet, making Easter dinner…
😉
3 Mihaela Lica // Apr 7, 2007 at
Oh, thank you so much, Laura. Lillie tagged me first. My post is already up and it is called Writers in Balance
Anyway, I wish you and your family a Happy Easter and a blessed spring. May all your wishes come true.
Mig
4 Kathryn Lang // Apr 7, 2007 at
I have to agree with what you said. I keep my life in order by trying to do things in this order : God first, you second, me third.
5 Howard // Apr 7, 2007 at
Another good bit of advice for balance is that which only recently have I begun to follow: when you go on vacation, GO ON VACATION. Last summer when we visited my in-laws in Kerrville, TX, I actually left my laptop at home…it was difficult…it was traumatic. But I managed. My office managed. And our three sons managed a lot better with my lack of it.
Thanks for the meme.
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http://surfcountry.blogspot.com/
6 Laura // Apr 7, 2007 at
Paula, I look forward to seeing your responses. Mihaela, I totally missed that Lillie tagged you–I must not have been paying attention. Kathryn and Howard: Welcome to my blog!! Thanks for commenting, you both have good insights!