“Work — and I repeat, in all its forms — is human. It expresses the dignity of being created in the image of God, which is why it can be said that work is sacred,” -Pope Francis

Ever since I can remember I have had the driving desire to own my own business and work from home. Mostly because my mother owned her own business,  she was a fabulous seamstress. During the week my mom would close her shop for 15 mins, pick me up and together we would had back to the store. There she taught me how to sew, treat clients like gold and work hard. Everyday she closed at 5pm and we would go home so she could start dinner for our family. Weekends she kept the shop closed so we could spend time as a family.

Through out all of this she had faith that God would provide just what we needed.

Over the last 7 years Brandon and I have had the blessing of meeting and getting to know hundreds of entrepreneurs. Our favorite question to ask each person/persons is why did you decide to start your own business. Of corse each story is delighfuly different + inspiring but they all have one thing in common… I wanted to have more time with family, friends and life. 

But here is what happens. Starting your own business takes a lot of dedication, drive and determination. It is eating failure for breakfast and getting right back up to keep pushing on, you may even eat failure again for dinner. And to be honest the first year or two is very very long hours. Not what you were expecting to hear, right.

The good news is, all this work does pay off. However, you must keep work under control.  I was once told by a good friend, “If satan can’t get you to slow down he will keep you working.”

That is what we have to watch out for, working so hard that we leave our family, friends and life in the dust. In 20 years I would rather look back and say, “we may not have had EVERYTHING under the sun but we have had a lot of laughs, a lot of family memories, a lot of friends and an amazing life.”

Is being open 7 days a week more important then your mothers birthday, a best friends wedding, a weekend trip to the Keys or spending the holidays with family?  God does call us to work but he does not call us to disregard our family, friends and life. He wanted us to Live. Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Let’s talk abut ways to keep work under control so you can put more emphasis on family, friends and living an amazing life!
1. Simplify Your Life: the world temps us to “keep up with the Joneses”. But we all know that material things only bring temporary happiness which wears off within a few weeks, days or even hours. If you simplify and declutter it will leave you with more time + more money taking away the need to over work.

2. Start Your Day With Prayer: Beginning the day with morning prayer allows you to get centered, be thankful and put all faith in God. It opens your heart for the Holy Spirit to direct and guide your day.

3. It’s Ok To Say No: If a client makes a request you don’t have the means to complete, it is ok to say no. In these times we must trust that God will have something else in store.

4. Make a Schedule And Stick To It: Set specific work hours. The more prepared you are, the less likely you will be tempted to work overtime.

5. Develop a Routine and Rituals: These are the secret to productivity and working more effectively. They allow for certain parts of your work day to be put on autopilot, so that you can use your brainpower to focus on what’s important: creativity and solving problems.

6. Take Breaks: Breaks help to regroup during the day, it gives time to connect with others and celebrate the little victories through out your day. If you have a positive work day that will overflow into having positive time with family, friends and life when you are off work.

7. Leave Work at Work: This can be extremely hard as a small business owner, entrepreneur, minister etc. especially with technology at our finger tips. We get it. However, we have to put a limit on work and keep it a priority to do so. If we don’t respect our own business hours no one else will.

8. Keep work Related Social Media Under Control: It’s got a grip on us all! To keep it under control we have devised a little method which we will share more of when we talk about productivity. The over all picture for social media is to plan out our weekly post, pre – post for days off and have guest bloggers.

 

Today at 2:30pm on FB live via the group Faith + Work = Prosperity we will flush out these 7 tips even more, share a few stories from other business owners who have witnessed to the power of keeping your business in control and answer questions. The FB live will be 20min long. We look forward to seeing you there!