Just a few weeks ago after a Sunday morning church service, Angie and I walked out, got in our car and headed home. I glanced down at my cell phone and noticed that I had several missed calls. That concerned me somewhat since my family knows where I am on Sunday mornings, but when I checked to see who had been trying to contact me, I realized that all those calls had come from the same person, and they were business related, from one of my vendors. My first thought was, "This must be something serious." When I listened to my voice mail, I heard, "Preston, please give me a call when you get this message." So I called. "What's going on?" I asked. It amounted to practically nothing...and that made me mad. After all, it's almost noon on a Sunday. Can't I even go to church in peace? I've often heard it said that you shouldn't react to a problem while you're still emotional about it, but you should wait until you have had time to cool down so you can make a calm, rational decision. My immediate thought was to make a little rule that I will not answer any business related calls on a Sunday unless it happens to be during a trade show and I have to be working that day, but after waiting until the next day so I could make a more rational decision, the decision that I made went even farther...I will answer business calls only during what I determine to be reasonable working hours. If I'm having dinner with my family, forget it. Just leave me a message and I'll call you back later.
I had a man tell me one time that if a person wants to make it in the business world, his business will have to be his number one priority, and family time will be one of the sacrifices that he will have to make. I just cannot agree with his line of thought to the extent that he intended. Yes, my job requires travel, and there are several nights of every month that I have to spend away from home; but when I'm home, my family time has to take precedent over everything else once reasonable business hours have passed. Now that we all have cell phones that keep us accessible twenty-four hours a day, we have to set some limits; and that's just what I've done, although I'm a little late. I've never heard of a person who was on his death bed who said, "I wish I would have spent more time at the office." The one person that I love to quote more than anyone else is T.F. Tenney, who said, "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing." When I come to the end of my life, I don't want to look back with regret and realize that I had my priorities all out of whack.
If I were to make a list that prioritizes everyone in my life in order, it's my family and close friends who would be at the top of that list. Making a decent living for my family has to be a major goal in my life...in fact, the Bible has some harsh words for the man who will not provide for his family. All I'm advocating is finding that proper balance between work life and family life. I love my job, and I work hard at it; I just have to be careful not to allow it to dominate my time at the expense of the ones I love most. If that was an easy thing to do, there would be no need for me to be writing about it. So if you want to call me to talk business, please feel free to call me at any time, twenty-four hours a day. All you have to do is leave me a message, and I'll call you back during normal business hours. Or you can send me a business email...I read them during business hours as well.
Preston
I had a man tell me one time that if a person wants to make it in the business world, his business will have to be his number one priority, and family time will be one of the sacrifices that he will have to make. I just cannot agree with his line of thought to the extent that he intended. Yes, my job requires travel, and there are several nights of every month that I have to spend away from home; but when I'm home, my family time has to take precedent over everything else once reasonable business hours have passed. Now that we all have cell phones that keep us accessible twenty-four hours a day, we have to set some limits; and that's just what I've done, although I'm a little late. I've never heard of a person who was on his death bed who said, "I wish I would have spent more time at the office." The one person that I love to quote more than anyone else is T.F. Tenney, who said, "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing." When I come to the end of my life, I don't want to look back with regret and realize that I had my priorities all out of whack.
If I were to make a list that prioritizes everyone in my life in order, it's my family and close friends who would be at the top of that list. Making a decent living for my family has to be a major goal in my life...in fact, the Bible has some harsh words for the man who will not provide for his family. All I'm advocating is finding that proper balance between work life and family life. I love my job, and I work hard at it; I just have to be careful not to allow it to dominate my time at the expense of the ones I love most. If that was an easy thing to do, there would be no need for me to be writing about it. So if you want to call me to talk business, please feel free to call me at any time, twenty-four hours a day. All you have to do is leave me a message, and I'll call you back during normal business hours. Or you can send me a business email...I read them during business hours as well.
Preston
Good for you!
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