Your most important responsibility to yourself is to achieve your own definition of happiness. Your level of consciousness rises to the degree to which you accomplish this. In the Bible there is a quote “what does it profit a man if he gain the whole world but lose his sole.” It means if you achieve a great amount material wealth but are unable to achieve happiness and inner peace you have failed to find your purpose. One of the keys to happiness in our fast-paced world is the ability to cope with dual demands of family and career.
According to Harvard Magazine, 85% of your happiness in life will come from your personal relationships. Your interactions and the time you spend with the people you care about will be the major source of the pleasure, enjoyment and satisfaction that you have each day.
Unfortunately many people lose sight of what is truly important, and they allow the tail to wag the dog. They sacrifice their relationships, their major source of happiness, to accomplish more in their careers but don’t understand that their career is only a minor and temporary source of the happiness and satisfaction everyone wants.
Both men and women in the workplace are becoming more and more concerned about the need to fulfill their responsibilities to their families without sacrificing their careers or their future potentials.
There is no perfect answer to the key question of how to achieve balance in our lives, but there are a number of ideas and solutions that can help you to be, have, and do more in the areas that are important to you. These ideas often require changes and modifications in the way you think and use your time, but the price is well worth it. You will find that by reorganizing your life in little ways, you can create a life that gives you the highest quality and quantity of overall love and peace.
You need to place your family’s needs above all else and then organize your work schedule so that you can satisfy those needs on a regular basis. This means, when you work, you must concentrate all your energy on doing an excellent job.
Once your job is done for the day, you can devote your full attention to your family and to the other important people in your life. The Bible says, “A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.” One of the meanings of this is that if you’re thinking about your work while you are with your family of if you are thinking about your family when you are at work, you end up accomplishing far less in each area. However, if you are on top of your work, when you come home you can devote yourself completely to your relationships and to enhancing the quality of your interactions with the most important people in your life.
The keys to a happy family life are being present and good communication. It is not quality of time but quantity of time that counts. The expression “quality time” is used by foolish people to justify and excuse the fact that their lives are so disorganized that they do not spend very much time with their spouse and children.
According to a study by The University of Denver one of the most important things men can do in a marriage is to help out with the various household and family responsibilities. Help with meals, or take over responsibility of cleaning up afterward. Help to get the children ready for school or their activities, and take them there personally so that you can have one-on-one time with them.
Your children also have a tremendous need to communicate with you. In fact, in my research on how to raise kids, I have found that the one factor that was more important than any other was the amount of one-on-one time that the parents spend with the children.
In order to balance the demands of work and the needs of your family you need to become a better planner, use your time more effectively, and continually think of ways to enhance the quality of your life in both areas. If you set this as your intention and resolve to work toward it every day you will gradually become happier, more peaceful and the members of your family will as well.
