Your business will require you to be “all in” unless you set strategies to balance work and family demands.
Here are some suggestions to ensure your loved ones never feel neglected.
Strategies to don’t neglect your children:
- Go to their recitals and be in the important things they do, but also reserve unstructured time so they don’t feel they’re just another to-do item in your calendar.
- Each of your children may have different needs, so when they are old enough, remember to ask them what they really need from you.
- Hold structured family meetings where everyone discusses how they can better help the family, better participate, help each other, and make life generally better within the family.
- Bring your kids to work once or twice a year. It helps the kids to really see what you deal with every day and the kinds of people reporting to you. It also helps them to see you in a leadership role, and it helps them understand and respect better what it is that you do. Doing so, they will understand that other people rely on your work.
- Discuss the business with your children. Maybe you won’t talk about financial matters with them, but you can tell them about new products, marketing campaigns, interesting business travel that you will take, or buyers who you’re meeting with. It will be an amazing education for your kids.
Strategies to don’t neglect your spouse:
- Apart from date night, you should take advantage of small moments together and make sure not to neglect them. For example, you could take a 15-minute walk.
- Don’t have your smartphone around when you’re having a conversation or at dinner, or keep it silent when on vacation. You can have it with you, but ensure your use of it actually helps to promote family time and personal time without those constant interruptions. It also is a way to send a meta-message to your spouse and family saying: “You matter most. Yes, my business is critical, but you matter more.”
- Have them come along on a business trip when appropriate, to work the booth at a convention, or even come and sit in on a board meeting. It’ll help them be engaged with the business and with you and be more aware of what you have to deal with.
- Remember that just because you’re not in business together doesn’t mean you can’t do things together. Obviously, shared hobbies are desirable, but even if you don’t have them, you can hold a fundraiser, launch a nonprofit, or do something together that will use both of your skills and even engage the business in helping the community.
Remember that when spending time with your family, a key component to balance is to leave your smartphone behind.
The balance in life is obtained by trading off things. Be sure to have your priorities clear and stay on the path towards your ideal life. Anyway, if you have a job, you will most likely need to make some difficult choices but be wise to never be in a position in which you can’t say no.
Attitude towards money
What is your attitude toward money?
I like money, and I consider myself good at making money. I see money as the only way you can buy back your time to have diverse experiences and enjoy life. That is why I seek it and constantly think and learn about money.
Thanks to this class, my attitude toward money changed for the better. Now, I have concrete and worthwhile reasons to have money instead of seeking money for the sake of money with only a vague idea of what to do with it.
How can your view of money affect the way you live?
I think it affects more than just your economic situation. From the people I know, those who consider money a necessary evil have two traits in common. They are fearful and conformist. They like to live life thinking that they came here to suffer and there is nothing they can do about it.
From what I saw, having a healthy view and understanding of money motivates self-growth. That translates to a healthier and more meaningful way of living. Many people see the care millionaires take of their bodies as self-centeredness. Although that might have some truth, I think it is normal that once money is not a concern, you start focusing on improving yourself in every aspect.
What rules are recommended for prospering?
Rule 1. Seek the Lord and have hope in him.
Rule 2. Keep the commandments, that includes the temporal ones, tithing and fast offerings.
Rule 3. Think about money and plan how you can become self-reliant.
Rule 4. Take advantage of chances for learning so you will not be ignorant of these matters. Education, as President Hinckley has taught us, is the Key to Opportunity.
Rule 5. Learn the laws upon which the blessings of wealth are predicated.
Rule 6. Do not send away the naked, the hungry, the thirsty or the sick or those who are held captive.