Defining Priorities in Work and Life

Prospering in life comes as a result of the careful combining of work and home. This focus is important in order to ensure you don't lose yourself, your loved ones, and your foothold in life. Those leaders that effectively involve their families in work decisions and activities are healthier people. Those that don’t, face the danger of creating two distinct worlds that cause emotional and spiritual detachment from the ones they love most. Healthy and happy, older leaders are those men and women who have learned to vigilantly manage their own time and energy. Younger leaders don’t think they need balance because they have an abundance of ambition and energy, but the pace of life that is fueled by this youthful zeal, will eventually cause burn out. You can go hard for ten, twenty, even thirty years, but flesh energy will give out at some point. Then what do you have left?

90% of the time you need to say no, so you can say yes to the right people and the right things. Saying yes too often prevents you from having the time to saying yes when you really should.

Many senior leaders have sustained their momentum by staying connected to their families. Their stories and advice for younger leaders reflect their early life choices to build support networks at home and among friends.

Senior leaders who don’t have balance feel they can achieve this balance by constant “juggling,” which prevents them from engaging meaningfully at home or at work. Learn to make deliberate choices about which opportunities to pursue so you can be truly effective in both areas of your life. Leaders who carefully manage their human resource maintain a higher degree of satisfaction in life and are more effective in what they do in service to others.