Use Your Strengths To Balance Your Life
By Bigg Success Staff
01-23-08
Work-Life Balance
Like most professionals, you probably feel pulled almost constantly. Work demands spill over to home and vice versa. You often feel pulled in several directions at once. You try to sort things out by priority, but what do you do when everything is a high priority?
There’s a great article at the Business Week site called Custom Building a Life.
Jeff Weinstein tells his story to Nick Leiber. We give a “BIGG salute” to them both! We’ll give you a summary here, but you should definitely read the article.
Jeff started The Counter, a restaurant that serves custom-made burgers at a great price, in 2003. He mentions three goals for his business at that time:
- To earn a good income
- To satisfy his customers by serving quality food at an affordable price.
- To have a place to have dinner with his wife
Things didn’t turn out the way Jeff planned – they turned out much better!
He attracted attention because customers loved his place so much. Soon he started franchising. Last year, sales topped the $3.5 million mark from his seven stores. Now with 125 more stores on the table, he projects $9 million in revenue this year!
Obviously, Jeff is still focused on his growing business. However, he also wants a satisfying life outside his career. That desire is not unique. It’s HOW he’s trying to fulfill it that’s interesting.
He gives his customers what they want, when they want it. Why couldn’t he apply that to his life?
He wouldn’t segment his life anymore; that was a recipe for failure.
Instead he would flow like soda from one area of his life to the other. His wife may say something that helps him at work. His co-workers may give him insight for things at home. He would pay attention to all the important people and priorities in his life all the time!
What about your work? Is there something that works in your professional life that you can use to balance your world? Your solution may be different than Jeff’s. He’s doing what he understands … what works for him.
That’s the real lesson – use YOUR strengths to find the balance you desire.
Share your solution with us! Leave a comment below.
(Image by mushroom and rooster, CC 2.0)
