In need of a sense of calmness?
If you are experiencing discontentment with your work-life balance, perhaps COVID-19 is helping us all figure out an important New Year’s resolution. Before COVID, I was working 12 to 14-hour days, getting up at 5:30 AM and not getting home until 7:00 PM sometimes. Exhausting! People who are overwhelmed, anxious, rushing, frustrated, with poor eating habits and barely exercising are stressed into illness. People who work more than they see their families created weakened families. It creates work relations that are hostile as well. This is not in line with what God desires for our work-life balance. This is what I have observed to be good: that it is appropriate for a person to eat, to drink and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given them—for this is their lot. (Ecclesiastes 5:18).
As a result of the pandemic, my life has a calmness. Now, I am content with being at home and working virtually. There are many benefits of working from home, self-care, family time, scheduling with ease, time to think quietly. Time to spend multiple short spans of time meditating on Scripture and prayer. It is with the click of a button I enter and exit into multiple meetings, conferences, lives, and social gatherings.
I have discovered a new secret to work-life balance that I want to continue to experience. In order to do that I need to reconfigure my work lifestyle to accommodate my desire for calmness. “Employee Calmness” is defined as being at your optimum best as an employee, practicing self-care, taking time away to refuel and build family life. A It also includes adequate time to develop yourself as an employee that does not require daily burnout. It sounds too good to be true, but we can change the face of the workplace and require work life balance and an expectation of “lifestyle calmness” if we are so bold as to negotiate with our employers how we can fulfill our responsibilities but not at the expense of our health and wellbeing.
My expectation is to continuously improve the ability to have calmness as the world leaders start making a transition back to in person gatherings. It is my expectation that in 2021, I will find more ways to adjust my lifestyle to the calmness. Make it a resolution to achieve work-life balance. Start by making a list of what you need to do to change your lifestyle. Set a date to meet with your boss to discuss your options. Then follow through for more than the first three months of the new year which is longer than most resolutions last.
