Is Balance Attainable?

Episode #349 with Dr. Kevin Groth

Your profession is a part of you. It may give you purpose, direction, and some degree of happiness. But your work is not all of you. And if you give 100% to your work, you will have nothing left to give yourself or others. To speak from experience and offer advice, Dr. Kevin Groth returns with Kirk Behrendt to share his journey of attaining work-life-self balance to help you become your best self. To find out the steps for a simpler yet fuller life, listen to Episode 349 of The Best Practices Show!

Main Takeaways:

Become in-tune with your emotions and develop self-awareness.

Identify who you are at your core. Self-awareness will drive everything else.

Understand the essentials — things that give you purpose and direction — in your life.

Never give 100% of yourself. Give 80% so you have 20% left to give.

Learn to say no to obligations, especially when you don't have the capacity.

Quotes:

“[I was working] Monday through Friday, sometimes some Saturdays. But really, it was probably 225 days, I would say. I think I counted that up in 2019, 2018 . . . Now, I'm down to 160 and keep dropping that number because I found a nice way to tune those dials that we talk about all the time and figure out what works for me and what doesn't.” (04:32—05:03)

“[By working less days, my income] increased. Which, I don't know what kind of magic it is. It doesn't make any sense to me, mathematically. But for some reason, you do find a sense of purpose and things that you want to do, and you become more efficient with it.” (05:12—05:24)

“When you have the right team around you to support you, everything gets a lot easier. Everything is far more manageable. And I found that you've just got to get the right people in the right seats and get out of their way.” (05:25—05:35)

“[Identify] who you are at your core. If you can identify who you are at your core, that will drive why you do something to give you a purpose. And then, once you know your who and your why, then you could realize what you do and how you do it.” (08:04—08:17)

“We all experience things on a daily basis. But we just, a lot of times, tune out our emotions because we don't want to deal with it. And once you start listening to those emotions and really reflecting on it, it becomes more of a self-awareness. And that self-awareness becomes something where you become more knowledgeable of who you are. And then, that can drive everything else.” (08:31—08:50)

“I think the first thing with anybody who’s in that point of their life trying to discover themselves, you've got to start with who [you're] not. It eliminates some of those things that you say, ‘Okay, this is not me. This is not me. This is not me.’ And eventually, it does lead you down a path to then discover, ‘This is me.’” (09:41—09:57)

“It’s so important, no matter what phase you are in life, to know who you are. And it drives how you do something.” (11:15—11:20)

“I think it starts with identifying, once you know who you are, what are the essential things in your life. When I can list the three to five things that really give me purpose and direction, it really simplifies things down to, ‘What do I want to devote my time and energy to?’ as well as what are some things that bring me joy in my life. Because then, if you can surround yourself with the bulk of what you do based on your essentials, and then you fill in those little spaces with some of the joys, there's a far more meaningful, fulfilled purpose out of your life that a lot of people just don't really have, to be honest.” (11:54—12:30)

“[Richard Swenson in Margin] talks about, ‘We should never give 100% of ourselves. We should always give 80% of ourselves. Because if we give 80% when asked upon, we have 20%