Week 11: Measuring the Cost... Life Balance

This week you will make your eleventh journal entry/blog post. Reflect upon the things that you are learning and experiencing so far in this course. What are you looking forward to learning and experiencing? What did you learn from the readings and videos this week?

Balance is such an interesting word. When I think of "balance," I think of harmony, equal, and good. I think that everything is right. I'm learning that almost everyone who considers the term "work-life balance" thinks it means anything but harmony, equal, or good. Work-life balance may not even exist, and could have been a conjured up term by an HR team somewhere trying to get ahead of the angry, stressed out, sick, and tired mob of less-than-desired productive, overworked employees. In any case, trying to get the mix of work focus, family focus, and personal focus just right is a constant juggling act. Just about everything is always but a fraction of a step from falling to the ground. It's worth trying though.

In the video "Is Work/Life Balance Possible?" with Ann Miura-Ko, she explains during the "seed time" of your business that "balance" is truly out of whack, and this is where true passion comes in to play. If you're not truly passionate about the venture, then there will be a crisis of conscience. I know I've experienced this before... not in my own business, but in giving far too much for someone else's business. It's a terrible way to live, feeling as if you're always giving your best to the wrong place. For years I said, "I want to care about something worth caring about." This is where personal passion for the endeavor comes in to play. Something worth caring about will even out the balance a bit, when so much time, energy, effort, thought, and resources are going into the venture.

I really enjoyed the short video with Meg Hirschberg called "Surviving the Entrepreneurial Life: Work & Family." I think it's pretty swell that in the college setting I'm being taught to truly care for my family, to have date nights and daily time together as a couple, and to serve together regularly. It's comforting to be in a business major where it's not all just numbers, strategy, terminology, etc.

After you've read the article Attitude On Money, answer the questions listed below and add it to your journal comments for the week in ADDITION to your normal writing. Be sure to answer each question.

• What is your attitude toward money?
• How can your view of money affect the way you live?
• What rules are recommended for prospering?

1) 

My attitude toward money is pretty much that it is better to make money your slave and to be its master than the other way around. It's a necessary thing that represents my my work & accomplishments, and having more of it than I spend keeps me self-reliant.

2) 

I think that the way I view money is healthy. I don't blame problems on money. It's not as if it could change its behavior and give a better outcome. It has no feelings. It has no ability to choose. Everything money-related in my life that is positive is because I or someone else affecting me made it that way. Everything money-related in my life that is negative is because I or someone else affecting me made it that way. I choose to use money to my advantage because I'm not here to choose a life of disadvantage... life brings its own circumstances regardless of whether money is lacking or in abundance. I like to make my money work for me. I like to be generous with it when I can. I like to not feel burdened by lack of money too. Viewing money as a necessary tool for a decent life helps me and my family to choose to be smart & not so frivolous with our spending.

3) 

Rule 1. Seek the Lord and have hope in Him.

Rule 2. Keep the commandments (including tithing & fast offerings).

Rule 3. Thin 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 is the key to opportunity (Pres. Hinckley)

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.