Work-life balance is one of the highest priorities people look for in their career. It makes sense because not everyone wants to live to work. With hobbies, friends, families, it can be difficult to address it all without sacrificing what you do to make a living.

This problem is why The 4 Burners Theory was made. It’s described as the 4 burners on a stove. Each burner being a section of your life.

They each would represent family, friends, health, and work.

The theory is that if you want to be successful, you need to turn off 1of your burners and if you want to be extremely successful, you need to cut off one more.

The different views of the four burners

Now I researched ways wondering is it possible to get all 4 burners to still be on?

Maybe I could get 2 burners in one? Like placing family and friends as one burner. Standing desks are a thing, so maybe health and work can be one? Even though that’s just as effective as saying you’re dangerous by unplugging your usb thumb drive without ejecting it.

The thing is, these are workarounds that don’t actually solve the problem. If you want to have a career worth having, you have to sacrifice time with your family, and same with health and friends.

Sure you can divide your time equally, but none of the 4 would be of any substantial level.

So would you want a life where you are at the highest peak in area but faulting others or never living to a true potential?

While this is a problem that people will always have, I’m going to give insight in dealing with it all.

1. Let others deal with your burners

In other words, it means to outsource the work involved in these burners. This is a form of taking work off of you.

We do it a lot in our lives when ever we go to a restaurant, a mechanic, and dry cleaners, as they offer services that remove stuff that we would ourselves do.

So why not do this for one of our burners?

The work burner will always be the best one for this. For a lot and personally me as well, the work burner is the most important. When it comes to a 40/hr work week, it’s where we spend the most time.

This is why business owners hire employees, not because they can’t do it themselves, but rather don’t have the time to do it all while getting the push in their business’s success.

Parenting is another way people use to help their burner with sending their kids to day care. It does come with a cost of time vs money at the end of the day, so you need to calculate which one is more abundant vs what you need.

2. Accept you can’t be perfect

The worst thing about the 4 burner theory is that it’s a visual proof that you can’t have it all. It shows that time is finite and it’s impossible to master it all. It doesn’t matter about your fitness, your bank account amount, or the time spent with your children.

So a way to deal with that is to stop thinking there isn’t enough. Rather, you should think about how to effectively do your best with what you have. You have limitations, just like everyone else, so be aware and accept it so you’ll be happier easier.

So examples are like you’re working 8 hours a week so how can you make the most money in that time period?

What about having only 30 min to write in your book in a day?

If you only have 4 hours for exercising in a week, how can you maximize that?

These are questions that presented in positive way that you have rather than thinking negatively about the time you don’t have.

Yes, acceptance means you won’t reach a level of excellence that you would like. It’s matter of time in progressing an improvement in a certain aspect of life.

3. The seasonal changes

The third way to cope with all four burners is by using them seasonal. Instead of trying to go at it all at once, you break them into 4 different sections of your life.

When you’re in your 20’s or 30’, you might not have children or other big commitments, so it would be easier to work on your career or health. So while those burners are on to the max, you don’t need to worry ab