Margin | Coaching Churches

Category Archive: Margin

How To Forget About Work When You're Not Working

Posted by on September 1, 2017

I read and coach a lot about the incredible challenge of work-life balance. I have never had a client that does not have this subject on the top three list of things they want to address. I am convinced that life integration is the key to resolving many of these tensions. This HBR post gives some practical advise:

“When was the last time you got away from work? I mean truly got away from it: didn’t think about it, didn’t worry about it, didn’t have a to-do list rattling around in your brain.

Most of us know there are benefits to getting away from work. We know we need time to recharge each day in order to be able to sustain our attention in the office. We know time away from complex problems allows us to find a fresh perspective. We know if we work too many long days in a row we’ll find ourselves doing what I affectionately call “fake work” — sitting at our desks without actually accomplishing anything.”

Categories: Margin Work Life Integration | Comments Off on How To Forget About Work When You're Not Working

Nine Strategies To Reduce Stress

Posted by on August 18, 2017

The inability to sustain margin may be the biggest challenge we face in this always on world we live in. It seems like the demands of work and home always exceed our capacity to meet them. Since so many factors are outside of my control, I must discipline myself to own the choices I can make. This post by the Coaches Council was very helpful:

“Stress is a part of life, especially business life. There are simply too many things that require your attention, which means that it’s far too easy to get overwhelmed, or worn down, by worries about the consequences of poor choices or imagined futures.

Managing stress, therefore, is vital, especially when you’re managing others. Teams look to their leads for direction, and people will pick up on signs that things aren’t right.”

Categories: Margin Personal Leadership | Comments Off on Nine Strategies To Reduce Stress

How To Find Margin For Your Total Life

Posted by on March 24, 2017

If there has ever been a day when the demands of work and home have been greater I am not aware of it. The sheer pace of life today leaves us emotionally and physically worn out and feeling empty at the end of most days.

Technology keeps us connected all the time and people in the workplace culture almost demand that we stay available 24-7. Our families are all running on the same high speed treadmill that produces stress in every area of our lives.

There are several key principles that must be in place if you want to create margin for the people and priorities that you care about the most:

Lead Yourself First—it is impossible to successfully help lead other people at work or in the home if you are not able to accomplish what is most important in your own life. You should set specific goals in the areas of health, personal development and faith with the necessary time allotment to make sure they get done.
Prioritize Your Family Next—at the end of your life it will not matter how much professional success you have had if you consistently neglected your role as a spouse and parent. There are no guarantees that time alone will produce a great marriage and character driven children but without it there is a high probability that both areas could fail.
Choose Right Career—most organizations are looking for people who will perform and improve their bottom line. However there is a growing awareness that if you want to attract and keep the best people you have to give some deference to work-life balance. The key is you have to be outstanding at what you do and you have to be in a culture that will reward that effort by giving you more time off and not more projects to accomplish.
Develop Life Plan—it never ceases to amaze me that some of the most effective leaders in the corporate arena do not practice any of the leadership disciplines that made them successful in their home and personal life. The can lead multi-million dollar projects from start to finish at work but not take more than 30 minutes to plan the annual family vacation.

When you develop a total life plan with goals and strategies for everything personal, private and public you just assumed the C.E.O. leadership role for your whole life. You will never have a more important job.

Categories: Margin Marriage Spiritual Growth Work Life Integration | Comments Off on How To Find Margin For Your Total Life

Families Deserve Priority Not Leftovers

Posted by on February 17, 2017

I have never known a great leader who did not know how to establish goals, develop plans, execute priorities and finally evaluate success in their career. Every day they proactively plan ahead and solve problems to everyone can be successful.

However, tragically for most people that is exactly what happens to them in their personal lives. They say this part is ultimately the most important but they never take the time to write down what they want their legacy to be for the people that matter the most.

Because the personal does not get the priority of the professional the family usually ends up with the leftovers. Leftover time, passion, affection and energy.

I have know people who can make million dollar decisions at work without blinking but by the time they get home they do not have enough emotional energy to decide if they want hamburgers or soup for dinner. They have been nice to other people all day, co-workers, suppliers and customers only to come home and be so fried they have to retreat to the T.V. because they have nothing left for spouse or children.

Someone has well said that the person who cannot see the ultimate always becomes a slave to the immediate. Meaningful relationships with family and bottom line professional results are not mutually exclusive but you must be willing to pay personal leadership price to have both.

Categories: Margin Marriage Parenting Work Life Integration | Comments Off on Families Deserve Priority Not Leftovers

Just Don't Do It

Posted by on August 31, 2016

Just Do It is a phrase that has come to represent the cultural mentality of an entire generation of Americans. The sheer discipline that is represented in those three words has pushed many of us to do things that otherwise we would have walked away from and left undone.

In my life the major point of application is in the area of physical fitness. When it is cold and dark outside most of us do not want to jump out of bed and go for a nice run when the temperature is in the twenties and the wind is blowing. In some small but very effective way, thinking about Just Do It can make the difference between turning over and getting up.

An even bigger problem for most of us is the daily discipline of learning how to say No. Everyday all of us will have more to do than we can possibly get done. It happens at work, at home, with friends and hobbies.

The real secret to success in life is in knowing on a daily basis what to say No to and walk away. The real tragedy of life is when we look back and realize even though we have been incredibly busy we have done so many things that were really not important at all.

I don’t know about you but the Just Do It mentality has pushed me beyond my limits too many times. I do not want to waste my time, energy, passion and relationships on things that do not add value to others.

I encourage you to just pick one thing a day for a week that you can say No to so that you can have the time to find your bigger Yes.

Categories: Margin Personal Leadership Work Life Integration | Comments Off on Just Don't Do It

Don't Get Surprised By Burnout

Posted by on June 27, 2016

This is a painful subject if you have ever had to admit you lost your margin and that you did not know it until the crash occurred. I have had to put in place some early warning alarms to try to avoid this happening again and again. This is not inevitable but you must have a plan. Steven D’Souza has a plan and it’s a great one for you to adopt:

“Coming back to the UK after an intensive, three-day consulting trip, I was on the edge of a panic attack. For a few seconds, I had a vivid “day-mare” of myself in the hospital, surrounded by doctors, with no way to cope or communicate coherently. As the vision passed, I became aware, for the first time in a long time, of a great heaviness and tiredness in my body. I realized – with some surprise – that I was burned out.”

Categories: Margin Personal Leadership Work Life Integration | Comments Off on Don't Get Surprised By Burnout

A Simple Way To Combat Chronic Stress

Posted by on April 20, 2016

We just finished a three week marathon of moving into a new house and doing most of the packing and moving ourselves. Needless to say the stress levels are still out the roof and I found these simple techniques posted by the HBR to be helpful:

“For most leaders today, frequent stress is inevitable. But with awareness and a little skill, its negative impacts are not.

Intense negative experiences of stress are all too common. Consider Stefano, coauthor of this article. In 1998, Stefano began a career abroad while simultaneously completing an MBA. He worked and studied 14 hours a day, seven days a week, fueled by a constant flow of stress hormones. ”

Categories: Margin Personal Leadership Work Life Integration | Comments Off on A Simple Way To Combat Chronic Stress

Why Busyness Is Not Badge Of Honor

Posted by on March 25, 2016

The harder we work the more we get done right? Wrong!!!! Actually, the reverse may be true because at some point in time we lose our margin and stop being effective at anything. Being over scheduled is definitely not something to brag about and according to Mark Merrill we must do something about it:

“I’m so slammed at the office this week. I’m going to be working late every night to get things done!” “This is a crazy month for me and the kids. Between basketball playoffs, piano recitals, and soccer tournaments, I might as well start a taxi service.”

Categories: Margin Work Life Integration | Comments Off on Why Busyness Is Not Badge Of Honor

10 Ways To Create Margin

Posted by on March 23, 2016

A simple definition of margin is the space between our load and our limits. It is the opposite of overload because you will have something in reserve for a time when you will need it.

Richard Swenson wrote an incredible book entitled Margin to help us learn how to restore emotional, physical, financial and time reserves to our overscheduled lives. Of all these important areas he believes everything must start with our emotional energy.

Every day we only have so much emotional energy to give to our family, work, friends and other people. Most of these people are making withdrawals from our emotional bank accounts and if we are not careful we become overdrawn with nothing left to give.

We must start each day knowing our emotional balance and then set limits on those people and things that will tend to drain us to the point of experiencing the pain of being overwhelmed. He lists several things that can restore your emotional energy:

Cultivate Social Supports
Reconcile Relationships
Serve One Another
Rest
Laugh
Offer Thanks
Grant Grace
Be Rich in Faith
Hold Fast Hope
Envision a Better Future

Some of the emotional drainers in life cannot be avoided but when you build in things that make deposits then you can routinely within your day monitor your balance and make the necessary adjustments to maintain margin.

We must find ways in this wired world we live in to have peace of mind so that we have something left to give to the people that matter the most.

Categories: Margin | Comments Off on 10 Ways To Create Margin

The Problem Of Marginless Living

Posted by on March 11, 2016

In the past I have talked about the need to create margin in our lives. Margin is the space that used to exist in all of our lives between all the physical, emotional and mental pressures of every day and our capacity to respond in a meaningful way to all of the people and circumstances that we must address.

The lack of margin is exactly the opposite when we have too many demands and not enough resources. For most of us the public parts of our lives centered around our work life demands its percentage first. I know people who can make million dollar decisions all day long at the office only to be so spent by the end of the day they can’t even decide if they want pizza or hamburgers for dinner.

They put other people first all day whether they are customers or co-workers only to come home with nothing left for a lonely spouse or stressed out children. We may feel successful at times because of all the public praise that comes with making your numbers but at the end of the day we know something is terribly wrong.

Whatever it takes all of us must find the courage to stake out some core values that are non-negotiable. This will allow us maybe for the first time in our lives to have the margin we need to live the life we want rather than the one someone else has scripted for us.

You have the capacity to write your own script, so take out your pen and start writing.

Find out what works for you to find time for the people that matter most.

Categories: Margin Marriage Servant Leader | Comments Off on The Problem Of Marginless Living