Balance & Boundaries

I’ll be the first to admit that, historically speaking, I’ve had a terrible work life balance.

T E R R I B L E.

But when you love your job, it doesn't feel like it’s a bad idea, right? It feels fun, exciting, warm, fuzzy and like you’re making the world a better place. All of which are probably true. However, at the same time you are slowly emptying a piece of yourself with no plan to fill it up.

I’ve done this at almost all of my jobs…so much so with my most recent job that I completely broke and it hasn’t been pretty. But more on that another day.

My counselor’s office sent out this article about Boundaries in Ministry and whew!! I wish this resource was available 18 years ago when I joined the workforce! While it is written about working in ministry, it can be easily translated into any profession.

I encourage you to read it and start doing something I have yet to do.

SET THOSE BOUNDARIES!

Be better than me! Don’t repeatedly neglect yourself until you hit your breaking point.

Some of my favorite nuggets of wisdom from the article are:

• The Gospels repeatedly show Jesus going off to pray and recharge. How much more must we need to do the same?

• Notice what you share with those you serve. Jesus did not look to his followers to meet his emotional needs and those of us in ministerial roles need to look outside of our congregants for emotional support.

• Typically, those of us drawn to ministry roles enjoy being a helper and have difficulty saying “no.” A professor told me, “When we say ‘yes’ to anything, we are automatically saying ‘no’ to something else.” What we repeatedly neglect is the filling up of our personal energy tanks.

• A few final pointers: find people who can support you and with whom you can be honest about how you’re doing – even about the good, bad, and ugly! Take breaks, show up, and leave the results to God.