Conquering the Creative Work-Life Balance: Real-Life Examples

Alrighty. My morning has gotten off to a great start and I decided to wait until this very morning (while I’m rearin’ to go) to jot down a few things for you that you’re hopefully going to read right here until the very end. It’s all about the Big 3 and continuing on with our work-life balance journeying. So, let me just refresh your memory or introduce you to the first two installments of our work-life balance step-by-step process in the blog posts below:

Conquering the Creative Work-Life Balance: Simplifying Things

Conquering the Creative Work-Life Balance: Focusing on the Big 3

And just to recap what the “Big 3” consists of in case you choose to read the posts (above) at a later time, here’s the gist of the concept in a nutshell — because there are only so many hours in a day and years in a life and we may not humanly be able to get to ALL THE THINGS in life we want to do, we should concentrate on those manageable tasks that are going to propel us forward (in a positive direction) in our lives.

Simplification in order to get things done is the goal in this case. And here’s how I propose we tackle “simplification” in life. I propose that we focus on the “Big 3” I keep mentioning, which deal with the areas that:

1. We’re good at. You might have heard “these areas” referred to as your area(s) of genius or unique value propositions or those things you excel in. They are the areas where you stand out, stand apart from the rest, and pretty well dominate in. And you’re, more than likely, seen as the go-to person for them and asked to do them for others who are not as skilled in those areas as you may be.
2. We enjoy doing. These are those things that we’re passionate about and that we’ll put our all into because we get sheer pleasure out of doing them (even if no one recognizes us for doing them). And guess what? Because you have an innate desire to do these things, you’re, quite possibly, exuding oodles of unique value proposition-like confidence while doing them and enjoying them. Here’s a WIN-WIN situation all the way around.
3. Benefit others. Well, if you want others to be attracted to those things you’re good at and those things you enjoy doing, you’d better make sure you utilize the “Big 2” to reach people where they’re at and with what they need.

So, for today’s discussion, I thought I’d give you some real-life context in how I’m intending to apply the Big 3 to my personal work-life balance strategy. I pray that sharing my break down philosophy gives you some perspective in how to break off your focus items to stalk in your own life.

And here we go . . .

In looking at the 3 categories of areas of focus for my “simplification of life” process, I’ll hone in on only the creative entrepreneurial side of things to, again . . . keep things simple for our discussion.

I’m good at

Written communication, especially in the realm of long-form content, is where it’s at for me. I’m a long-winded individual, so the short-form stuff is definitely not my forte. I just have so much I want to communicate and I can’t do that with the short-form platforms very well. Therefore, the social media gamut doesn’t quite appeal to me. I use it (a little bit) for business purposes, but you won’t see me in it very much. It’s just not my jam and I’m not trying to force it to be.

Social media content is just not a good representation of me, myself, and I or a place I even desire to hang out at. But, my blog, on the other hand, is a place where I can put my written communications to use and simply do what I do, which is write (or type). You know what I mean. And I would consider myself to be somewhat proficient at being comfortable at it. How well I do is subjective, of course, and in the eyes of the beholder. Personally, I think I can hold my own when it comes to written content. And I tend to look at it this way — I don’t think I’ve burned any bridges here in the blogosphere just yet, seeing how I continue to have wonderful people (like you) tuning in to my attempt to be the wordy person that I am.

Furthermore, writing is nothing new to me. It’s been a life-long companion of mine. I’ve always been the person that my family (and work cohorts and leadership) have gone to to draft business correspondence, to help with proofreading and editing, to consult with in figuring out the best way to say something in written form, and yada-yada-yada. So, from a very young age, I’ve always had opportunities to put my writing skills into action from school to work to family life.

Writing and I were predestined to be a cohesive match from the get-go. So, guess what I’ll be focusing on from this category of what I’m good at? Well, anything that utilizes my writing skills on a long-form content basis. And those priorities include: this blog, the newsletter for my email-subscribing family, book writing, and my podcast (an extension of the content from this blog).

I enjoy doing

Okay, I know you probably know what I’m going to say here. And you’re right if you guessed: writing. Yes, the thing I’ve been told I’m good at is also the thing I enjoy doing. And when you have that combination going for you, it’s truly a blessing. I often think that people tend to be good at the things they enjoy doing because they’re going to be passionate about doing them (even when no one is looking or giving them accolades for it). You put your all into what you love. So, it’s simply positive reinforcement all the way around. You love what you do while you do what you love, and then you’re rewarded by being great at it. What’s not to appreciate about this scenario?

I’ve enjoyed writing from a very young age. I think some of this had to do with my love for reading. Reading has, undoubtedly, made me a better writer and has made me want to write stuff that other people can read. I’ll always say that reading and writing are closely intertwined, because they are. And one feeds off of and feeds into the other.

I was an avid reader from my elementary school years. I even have some of my books from back in the day and have shared them with my children, who are readers themselves. And when I think back a few decades, I was also that youngin’ who seemed to gravitate toward the grammar stuff. All the ELA fundamentals in school were my comfort zone. Don’t ask me why that subject matter turned me on, but it did. All the mechanics and specificity of learning the rules of grammar, writing, sentence structure and the like really appealed to me.

I’m not saying I use all of that stuff today, however. As a matter of fact, I reserve the right to write as against the grammar rules as I want since this is my space to hang loose and be at home. Seriously though, I know I don’t display all the rules of linguistic engagement to the “T” in my blog posts, but I also don’t talk like a walking ELA textbook. So, I strive to be free-to-be-me on this platform. However, that still doesn’t negate the fact that I love that boring (to most) language arts stuff I learned in school.

I’m rambling a little, so let me close out this section with a new-found area of interest of mine that I’ll be intensifying my concentration on. That area is vocal work. I rather enjoy it and am finding that I was ironically doing it already in my personal life with recording chapters of the Bible in audio format for my family as well as reading to my son throughout his elementary years of school as part of his bedtime routine. (Now that he’s in middle school, he’s been content in taking over his reading time all by his pre-adolescent lonesome.)

Furthermore, I have an audio book that I really am determined to get completed soon and a podcast that has been somewhat of an experimentation of what I can do vocally, giving me prime vocal practice and allowing me to present my blog content to an even wider audience. So, audio work will be a continued focus of mine, for sure.

Benefit Others

Whew! I told you I like to be me — long-winded, that is. So, I think I’ll save this category for next week. I simply cannot expect you to spend any more time reading this blog post. You have other things you need to do. So, go be productive, my friend. But remember, you’re not in a race to be the most overwhelmed you can be in life. That’ll come with no effort at all. However, you are in a race to have the best quality of life you possible can while prolonging and enjoying that life while you’re at it.

And with that, my plan is to see you next Tuesday to finish this particular discussion. Until then . . .