Life Space Accounting

There. I did it. In the words of Gandalf to king Theoden, “Breathe the free air.” It’s been 16 days of strained concentration – and it was also entirely unavoidable. Because we live in a world which is not directly subject to our wishes, we’ve got to be able to bend and flex. And there will be periods when we are asked to do something which nearly tortures the meaning of those two words.

All that being said, however, we must work hard to never forget the direct and delicate relationship between our personal and professional lives. Your personal life is the thing you lead from and it’s the thing you lead with. So we must take care. Let us not live our personal lives in such a way that our professional lives become impossible. And more importantly, vice versa: let’s not live our professional lives in a way that makes our personal lives impossible. You cannot serve one by ignoring or abusing the other because they are different phases of the same thing.

Proverbs warns against idleness – but at the same time, God’s law also demands a Sabbath. We were made to be in motion on purpose, but all our ‘motion’ requires a matching rest. That word ‘matching’ is particularly important. It’s a simple matter of math and accounting: we all need to find resting behaviors that more than match the intensity of our spending behaviors.

And as I write all this, I’m relishing the first morning of a recharging phase. Do I feel guilty? Absolutely not. In the words of Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne, “Rest is a weapon.”

Have a great week.

Chris