Work-Life Balance For Dads. Tips to Achieve It All

Nobody on their death bed ever said “I should have spent more time at the office”. But yet so many of us struggle with balancing work, family, friends, hobbies, and anything else we want to do. So in this video, we are going over how to achieve work/life balance.

I recently read an article about a nurse who spent numerous years working people who were dying. She said nearly every male patient that she dealt with had wished they had not worked so hard. They all deeply regretted working so much that they missed their child’s youth. You know as men, we often value so much of our worth and existence by what we do for work and how we provide for our families. We end up believing that the more work we do, the better it is for us and those around us. We’ll get that promotion, we’ll make more money, we’ll provide for our family, etc. Those things may be true, but are they really better for the quality and happiness of our lives?

It’s been proven that money doesn’t buy happiness. However I will say in my late 20s, I had a sports car that seemed to often make me happy. But seriously, how can we better balance our lives to have it all? Well, balance is different for everyone.

Let’s go over a few tips that might help you solve it:

1) Establish your goals – What are your priorities? What do you want to achieve with your work and your personal life? You need to be clear on this.

2) Once you have established your goals, get organized. Track your time, know where your time is currently being spent

3) Schedule time in your personal life – You schedule things at work because they are important. Schedule your personal life as well. Put your kids and wife on your schedule.

4) Drop time wasting activities – Do you watch television? Do you spend time on social media? If you are complaining that you don’t have “time” to do something, take a look at how much time your wasting on those things.

5) Be honest with yourself – Instead of saying “I don’t have time” change your words to “It’s just not a priority”. See how that resonates inside.

6) Be present – When you are at work, work hard. You can get more done in a shorter amount of time. When you are with family or doing things in your personal life, be present. With your kids, the quality of the time is more important than the quantity.

7) Realize you won’t always be perfect – Some days you are going be a great dad. Others day you may be a good husband but your kids didn’t get much from you. And then some other days you might be a great business person but you didn’t pay attention to your wife.

You can’t always do all of them perfectly. and that’s OK. Instead of calling it work/life balance, think of it as work/life harmony. Everything has to work together. There are always going to be things pulling at you. Learn to appreciate all of the different facets of your life. Being a dad isn’t easy, but it’s awesome.