Well, hello. All right, before we get started today, I just need to take a second to give a huge thank you to you. I am blessed by your love, blessed by your commitment and showing up for today's episode or for any other past episodes you've listened to or watched of mine. I am blessed by you. You have been giving me so much love, especially over the past few episodes and it just warms my heart to see that this content is hopefully making an impact in your life. Every person I come across, whether they're a listener, a viewer of my content, whatever it might be, once, twice, multiple times, I have so much love for you. I truly see you as my community and I just value the heck out of you and your creative gifts. So thank you for being here. So let's dive into what we're going to talk about today. That work life balance. You know what? Let me rephrase that. That seemingly impossible work life balance. I have had so many times in my life where I thought I finally achieved work life balance just to find myself being hit with burnout, being hit with workaholism, And everything in between to the point where it just felt like achieving consistent, real work life balance was just farther and farther away. And more and more, I am finally getting to a point where I'm achieving it, I'm disciplining myself with it, I'm setting necessary boundaries so that I can have it. And when I do achieve that balance every week, I am much more consistent. I am much more productive. So we're going to talk about that. Not having a work life balance is what can keep you from consistently doing what God is calling you to do. Why? Because on the work side of things, if you're working way too much, you end up burning yourself out. To the point where you're tired. And you don't want to even be consistent. Working on your business, working on your project, doing that thing. Cause you're tired and you're burnt out and you just want to throw it out the window or not deal with it at all. Working way too much, especially if you're not seeing results yet from the work and effort that you're putting in and not balancing that out with the life side of things, especially that rest. Then, a lot of times, you find yourself constantly worrying, having anxiety, and just feeling insecure. Especially when it comes to money, or those doubtful thoughts of, can I even do this? Am I even good enough? Overly working and not balancing that out enough with life, especially rest, can trigger those thoughts even more and can really put you in a deep, dark hole that's hard to get out of. Now, on the completely opposite end. The life side of things, if you are not putting in enough effort within your work, but are putting in way more effort on the life side of things, whether it's rest, fun, doing whatever it is that you want to do, then you could be setting yourself up for unintentional laziness, not giving God your yes in what he is calling you to do. Or just staying in this constant headspace of, I'll do it later. I'm just going to put it off. The time isn't right right now. Let me just push it back. In addition to that, if you're leaning way too heavily on the life side and not enough on the effort within your calling side of things, then you might also find yourself. Feeding into those negative thoughts, those dark moments, because you have all of these beautiful ideas in your mind and you know in your spirit that God is calling you to something, but you won't move. You're not putting an effort towards that gift in the workplace that God is calling you to or the industry, whatever it is. And that can also lead you down a deep dark hole that is hard to get out of. This is why a work life balance, God's way, is the best and the only solution to sustaining the journey that he is calling you to. Now, I need to be clear. It is okay to lean into the life side of things, especially that rest. It is okay to prioritize things that have nothing to do with work. In fact, you might even have seasons in your life or in your work where God is asking you to take a break. He's wanting you to step back and to focus on something else that has to do with building you, renewing you, prioritizing more of your family, more time with God, more self care. There are, or may be, seasons for that. The point that I'm making is that God, at the end of the day, calls all of us to something. And if you have a creative gift, that is not by accident. He put that in you and he wants you to do something with it in the world, whether it be to one person or to multiple people. And that creative gift Could mean a lot of things. It could be you starting your own business if you have entrepreneurial ambitions. It could be finally working on that project that you've been wanting to build and launch for a long time Music, writing Crafting, building, creating, uplifting Helping, whatever the creative gift is, you've got it. You've got something. And it's not meant to just exist in you for you to do nothing with. Do something with it, but in order to sustain you doing something with it, Not just doing something with it this week, because you're highly motivated right now, but sustaining that journey long term, until or if God pivots you into a different direction in the future. We want to be consistent in it. We want to sustain it. And the only way we're going to be able to do that is to create a healthy, true work life balance. So let's talk about it. To create a healthy work life balance God's way, the first thing that I'll say, you need to realize that God wants you to rest. You are deserving of rest. You need to rest. From a physical standpoint, mental and spiritual, you need to rest. The human body, the mind, the spirit can not exist in constant hustle mode. It can not. It was never supposed to be that way. You know, in these episodes, I'm constantly talking about how Jesus is the roadmap to everything in life. There are multiple points in the Bible where Jesus rested. He stepped away to pray. He rested. He slept. And he was perfect. There was absolutely nothing wrong with Jesus or how he lived his life. He was perfect. So if the most perfect person in the entire world of all time rested, why do we think that we are undeserving of rest? We need to rest just as Jesus did so that we can build back up the stamina, the strength and the confidence to pour back out again. We need to fill ourselves up with rest, with breaks, with downtime. Sabbath day. Dedicated moments of prayer throughout the day. Reading scripture, doing hobbies that you love that have nothing to do with your work. All of these things have to do with filling yourself back up so that you can pour out again. But in order for you to actually do that. Right? Not just listen to this episode and just nod your head and be like, yep, that's, that's right. I need that reminder. Thank you, Angel. No, because I want you to do something about it. Not just listen to these episodes, do something with what you are listening to, what you're feeling inspired by. In order for you to actually do that, you need to see that you are deserving of rest. I think sometimes we believe that we don't deserve rest or downtime because we don't feel good enough until we're constantly hustling, until we're in this constant mode of just trying to figure it out. It's like, we don't feel good enough. We don't feel like we have an identity without work. Being instilled in us. And that's where we need to be careful. Because first and foremost, do you need to put in the work, the effort? Do you need to move in order to do what God is calling you to do in this world? Yes, you do. But that does not mean that that work now becomes your identity. That does not mean that until your work is finished, that is when you'll be good enough. You got to be careful with the tricks that your mind will play on you. Just be self aware to thoughts or to habits where you might find yourself overworking, overly hustling, overly just trying to figure all the things out right now. Let yourself rest in between. As you're putting in the effort, if you bump into moments of, Ugh, I don't really know. Ugh, I'm so confused. Ugh, I'm finding myself getting tired. Ugh, this is frustrating. How am I going to make this money? What about this? I need to start working on this project even more. I already worked five hours on this today, but you know what, let me go ahead and work another five. If you find yourself in any of those thoughts, pause and realize that you are deserving of rest. If you really want to succeed in your God given calling, you need to rest I have struggled with workaholism my entire adult life. I will never forget back in college, I was working 40 hour work weeks, going to school full time, and had a part time internship, and was trying to make time for family and friends and whatever else. And that type of hustle stuck with me up until very recently. I enjoy working hard, but I am still learning what it's like to truly let go of workaholism for good. I'm just now finding that work life balance God's way. It's okay to rest. If you want to gain clarity, if you want to build your confidence, if you want to figure that thing out, if you want to grow financially, if you want to just succeed in what God is calling you to do, then you need to recognize that rest is a big part of making that happen. When you rest, you get clear. When you rest, you focus inward. When you rest and your mind finally slows down, it becomes much more easier for you to actually hear what God could be speaking over your life and your calling. When you rest, you build back up the energy to continue putting an effort over time. So for all of my workaholics out there, This point that I just made was especially for you. Let me dive into the second point that I want to make here in regards to a work life balance and doing it God's way. Do not prioritize your work over God himself. Know when to cut your work off. This is a really tough one for a lot of us, and I want you to look at this from the lens of not just work and your creative calling. I want you to look at this from the lens of everything that you do in life in order to get things done. Your family, taking care of your household, travel, events, kids, and especially work, because most of us are working eight hours a day, minimum five days a week. When your day is consumed mostly with work, and then you follow that up with everything else in your life that you need to do, working out, household stuff, family stuff, whatever it is. We need to pause and ask ourselves what time in our day do we even have to spend time with God? Maybe you give God 30 minutes a day by reading the Bible. Maybe you give God 15 minutes a day split up in that day through moments of prayer. Maybe you give God 3 minutes in the evening to say a prayer before you go to bed. It's not that these are wrong. Any effort put towards building a relationship with God is good. But we need to ask ourselves the very real question of, am I prioritizing everything else in my life over God himself? It's hard because we live in this world, we're surrounded by a constant to do list. So it's really hard when we see this never ending to do list and we just want to get it done day by day, but we don't physically see God himself, right? We spiritually feel him, sense him, and have to put our faith in the unseen, in valuing the unseen. Rather than valuing and overprioritizing everything else, that is not God himself. And I truly believe that one of the best ways that we can overcome this, the best ways that we can really prioritize God above everything else, is looking at it like this. Everything you do, glorify God with it. Think about your day. Think about your to do list. Whatever it is, ask yourself, how can I glorify God in this moment? And you can get really fun and creative with this. For example, when you're cooking, play some worship music and glorify God through your cooking because you are playing worship music and you're in that moment singing and cooking and just enjoying that present time. If you're working, before you start your work tasks for that day, ask yourself, how can I glorify God with these work tasks? How would God want me to go about this or change my perspective so that I'm not just looking at these work tasks as hard or annoying or frustrating things that I need to get done so that I can do what God is calling me to do, but instead, how can I change the perspective? Maybe I'm looking at my work tasks as, wow, when I get these done today, it's going to make an impact to this person, to my team, to those people. If I put genuine love and respect in the work tasks that I'm doing and seeing that these tasks are going to make this better or improve this over here or work towards a result in this way, then I'm leading more with mission. Which is what God wants us to do at the end of the day, leading with mission rather than money. Leading with mission rather than the constant financial outcome or personal status that we desire. Leading with the mission of how this is going to help other people. Team, colleagues, audience, helping them because of the work that God blessed me with now. If you're in the car or cleaning or in the middle of a workout, what does it look like to talk to God like he's your best friend? You can glorify God in that way too. in that present action. I'm giving all of these examples to make a point that you can get creative with how you glorify God throughout your entire day. It doesn't always have to be moments of prayer. It doesn't always have to be moments of reading scripture. Get creative. All God wants is for you to bring him in your day with you, for you to be receptive to him being by your side and leading you through this day. But you won't let them. If you're just running rampant throughout your day with all of these errands and that never ending to do list while you put God on the back burner, prioritize him, glorify him in all that you do when you do. You get a spiritual rest. It's like this divine peace. Your mind changes. Your spirit feels a little more at rest, especially if your day is so chaotic. The last thing that I'll say when it comes to that healthy work life balance God's way, And I've said this before in previous podcast episodes, so I'm going to say it again. You need to get good at time management. Learn to master that skill. It is very important for us to steward everything that God gave us and to steward it well. And when I say stewardship, when I say you learning how to manage things in your life well, carrying it well with God carrying that with you, I'm not just talking about finances. I'm not just talking about you taking care of your home. I'm not just talking about you saying yes to God in your creative calling and finally moving forward. When I say stewardship, I am also talking about your time. God gifted you with time today. He blessed you to see another day. That is not by chance. That is not by coincidence. So if God blessed you with time today, then you need to ask yourself, am I stewarding my time well, or am I messy with it? Am I all over the place? Is everything disorganized? And if it is, that's okay. Just allow yourself to improve your time management skills day by day. Managing your time well can help you put in the good hard work, put in the good hard effort towards what God is calling you to do, but also having a cutoff time, knowing when it's time to stop, knowing when it's time to rest, being so self aware to when you're on the verge of burnout or when you're on the verge, if we're going to flip it, if you're on the verge of being unintentionally overly lazy. Or not being consistent or not putting in effort. Having time management can help you just balance those things. Putting in the effort and also resting. Putting in the effort and also enjoying the life that God blessed you with. The family you have. Time with God. The hobbies that you have. Your home. My friend, it is time to get good at time management. If you know you struggle with managing your time, or making time, balancing your time, you can't just say, you know what, I'm going to get better at time management today. You could, but the likelihood of you being consistent with that It's going to be pretty rare versus putting a plan behind how you are going to get better at time management. Don't just tell yourself, I'm going to get great at time management today. This week is my week. This month is my month. This year is my year. I'm going to manage my time so well to the point where I can balance this and put in effort towards this. Finally. Don't just say that, put a plan behind it to help you actually do it. For me, just to give you an example, I stick to a schedule for the most part. I also have a project management tool that I use called monday. com that helps me schedule out all of my work tasks throughout different days during the week to the point where I know exactly what needs to get done every day that I am working. And I can easily look. on the visual view in monday. com that shows me, okay, today on this random Tuesday, I need to get A, B, C, D, E, F done today. Because I planned it out ahead of time. However, I also know me. And I know that some of those tasks might take longer than I initially intended. So what I do is I have what I call a substitute date for those tasks. If I say I'm going to get something done on Tuesday, I'll create a substitute date to completely, for sure, finish it by Wednesday. Because life happens. Maybe on Tuesday I get sick. Maybe I get a call and I need to head out unexpectedly. So let me just move that over to the substitute date that I already planned for it to be on so that I can get it done and do the thing. And manage my time well when it comes to work, rather than pushing something off for days, for weeks, and let's be real, for years. Now, this isn't the case every time. Obviously, things come up that take longer and take up more of your time to the point where you unintentionally need to push stuff off. And that's okay. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about you sticking to a usual schedule and having a time management or project management tool to help you stick to it for the most part. Now, outside of work, going back to the schedule concept that I said, I have a Sabbath day every week, and I try to shoot for that Sabbath day, either being on a Saturday or a Sunday. That is a part of my schedule in order to have a healthy work life balance that I actually stick to. Don't just say you're going to have a Sabbath day and you'll just choose when that day is, because I've caught myself in that many times, and still do sometimes, to the point where I never actually have a Sabbath day. Have a schedule. Do you want your Sabbath day to be Saturday? Or Sunday. Do you want it to be Monday? Maybe you need two Sabbath days that week because you need to refuel yourself. And by the way, when I say Sabbath day, I'm talking about true, genuine rest. No checking emails, no work stuff, nothing that has to do with errands and, oh, you got to get this done and you got to clean and you got to da da. No, all of that is work. Sabbath means genuine rest. Spending time with God, filling yourself back up. It's also on my schedule to have no meetings, usually on Mondays, or Fridays. Sometimes I will, but for the most part, it's in my schedule to not have meetings on those days. Because I realize that I need capacity to just focus on my creative works, or even just having flexibility on those specific days to rest in between. Just have a schedule. And I truly believe that you having a calendar and you leveraging tools around you to help you manage your time better. That can go a long way. But remember, very similar to what I said in the previous point, you want to steward your time well, but don't just steward your time with work. Steward your time well when it comes to God too. Make sure that he has prioritized over your work. Make sure that you are also stewarding your time when it comes to your rest. At the end of the day, my friend, there are so many ways for you to have that healthy work life balance God's way, and I know you can get there. I know you can do it. And if you'd like some help with this, I do have a free content management toolkit that you can get right in the podcast show notes where you're listening to this episode or in the YouTube description down below where you are watching this episode Now this toolkit does come with how you can leverage a project management tool Add it to your calendar create a schedule get the tasks done and it specifically refers to work your content all that stuff. But you can also take that toolkit and leverage it for helping you in scheduling other things outside of work as well. And just making a plan, making sure that you have a way, a method to help you achieve that healthy work life balance. Feel free to use that toolkit down below, however you'd like. Get creative with it and make it work for you. Thanks so much for tuning in this week, my friend. I hope this episode was helpful for you. And I look forward to seeing you next week for another episode of the God Empowered Podcast.