enjoy your work and be able to share your accomplishments with
your family. You may have been able to integrate your spiritual
life and your work life. It isn’t necessarily a strict either/or choice.
2. Working at Your Job Is easier than “Working at” Your
Family
Jobs often consist of well-defined tasks. They aren’t necessar-
ily easy or even pleasant, but they’re clear. You know what you’re
supposed to do, and you know what it’s supposed to look like when
you finish. Something outside yourself tells you when you’ve done
well and when you need to work harder.
Knowing exactly how to “have a good family life” or to “be
healthy” can be a lot harder, and the “product” of your efforts here is
often intangible. You may be close to your family members, but you
cannot control them, and that lack of control can be disconcerting.
3. Social pressure rewards traditional Concepts of Work
Even when you begin telling yourself that other aspects of life
are important, too, you can’t slack off on the job expectations.
Somehow you’re supposed to devote more time to family without
taking a minute from work—more of that “you can do more with
less” nonsense, the underpinning for a belief in “quality time.”
Li Ve a VaLU eS-CenTereD Li Fe
You aren’t a monster or even a hypocrite. You’re simply a time-
pressured American without enough hours in your day for the
important things in life. That explains it, but it doesn’t fix it.
What can you do to make or find or create time for family, for
spiritual growth, for health maintenance?
C R E AT E A VA L U E S- B A S E D T I M E M A N A G E M E N T P L A N