12 WAYS TO BRING MORE BALANCE INTO YOUR LIFE
(Adapted from *Carson Pue, Mentoring Leaders, Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2005, p. 227)
(1) Set boundaries…If you don’t set boundaries, other people will set them for you. Establish ones that are healthy for you and your family without taking advantage of the ministry God has called you to do.
(2) Watch, ask, and listen…Observe other leaders and talk with a mentor about managing the demands of ministry, marriage, and family life.
(3) Work smarter, not harder…Often people default to do what is easiest first, rather than those things that are most important.
(4) Make appointments…Entries in our day planner should reflect what’s important to us, such as family, reading times, time for neighbors and friends, etc. Write them in!
(5) Begin small…Give yourself the gift of a couple of hours of freedom. Then expand it to a half-day block of time.
(6) Leave work at the office…Or it can ruin your days off, cause feelings of guilt, consume emotional energy; turn off your cell phone, BlackBerry, etc.
(7) Teach yourself to grow into your leisure time…It takes practice, but it’s fun. Develop a healthy theology of leisure.
(8) Find other ways to get all the work done…Keep chipping away at the tasks and delegate.
(9) Let people know when you are “off”…Keep staff informed and set boundaries.
(10) Find ways to clear your mind after work…Take an hour every Friday to organize your next week; it helps to unclutter your mind for the weekend.
(11) Create more space around activities…Resist packing more into each day, and instead build a little margin into your activities.
(12) Learn to not over schedule errands…Avoid pushing all your personal errands onto your days off.
Carson is today the Executive Director at First Baptist Church right smack in the heart of downtown Vancouver, Canada. He describes the church this way, “Congregating in this historic stone building in the very heart of the downtown is a community. We are young, old and in-between, rich, poor, employed and re-training, multicultural, families and singles, Bible scholars, seekers. All share a heart for the city.”
For fourteen years Carson served as CEO of Arrow Leadership a ministry recognized as a global leader in Christian leadership development. Arrow develops leaders worldwide “to be led more by Jesus, lead more like Jesus, and to lead more to Jesus.” They have been highly successful in transforming and enriching the lives and leadership of men and women who are now deployed around the world.
Recognized as a leader of leaders Carson has an ability to identify leaders and invest wisdom into their development through mentoring, teaching and spiritual guidance.He is also best-selling author: “Mentoring Leaders: Wisdom for Developing Character, Calling and Competency” by Baker Books and his new Mentoring Wisdom: Living and leading well. Carson is known through his speaking at conferences, published articles, national radio programs and commentaries. Through referrals over 50,000 leaders benefit from his monthly leadership emails “To the Point” “Mentoring Questions” and magazine columns.
When not traveling the world encouraging leaders, he loves sailing with his BFF and first mateBrenda whom he has been married to since 1976. He loves time with his three sons, two daughters by marriage and three grandsons. He is also restored by laughter, sailing, Ireland, writing and spiritual retreats.
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