Episode 863 Balance Your Time for Self and Others
[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 863 of the inspired stewardship podcast. I'm
[00:00:07] Shannon Miles: [00:00:07] Shannon miles from ballet. I challenged you to discover your calling and find your third option so you can be empowered to live every day to the fullest. One way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the inspired stuartship podcast with my friend and Scott Mader.
[00:00:23]Scott Maderer: [00:00:23] so is good because we've been trying to do too many things and then we bite someone's head off and we are surprised that we've done it. But the truth is it was predictable. It was going to happen sooner or later. The positivity is great, but it can only really last. If you also take care of yourself, if you've also built your own streets.
[00:00:48] Welcome, and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time. Your [00:01:00] talent and your treasures for your true calling and the inspired stewardship podcast. We'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.
[00:01:14]In today's episode about investing in others by stewarding your time. I talk with you about why serving others doesn't mean you don't take time for yourself. I also share how balance doesn't mean. It's always the same. And I talk with you about how giving is best done of your time when you are a strong yourself.
[00:01:35] As we talk about stewarding your time. Wouldn't it be great. If you could support this podcast and do it without just taking too long, it turns out you can't. All you have to do is use inspired stewardship.com/amazon. When you're ready to make a purchase via Amazon and a small commission, we'll come back to support the show.
[00:01:53] Just that quick. If you enjoy the show, when you are ready to buy from Amazon, just [00:02:00] use inspired stewardship.com/amazon. One of those things that I think a lot of us do from time to time is we'll burn ourselves out, trying to do everything we can for someone else. We'll go out of our way to help them.
[00:02:17] We'll go out of our way to serve them well, end up not taking care of our own personal needs so that we can help another person. And let me be clear. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with that. I'm not saying that, doing that from time to time and doing that for the people around you that really need your help is a bad thing, but long term, you also have to take time for yourself.
[00:02:43] And what happens a lot of times is we'll end up burning ourselves out for total strangers or for people that are just in our circle outside of our close family and friends. And we'll sacrifice time with our family and friends and ourselves [00:03:00] instead, we'll end up not doing self-care activities.
[00:03:04] We'll end up not spending time with our spouse or kids or significant others. So that. We can serve total strangers and go out of our way to help people at work or people in other environments that aren't always where we put our first priority, or at least where we say our first priority. Isn't see.
[00:03:25] That's, what's really the problem here. The lack of alignment, we'll say our family is our most important thing, but then we'll sacrifice our family. For other things, we'll say that the time we spend with our kids is really important, but then we'll end up sacrificing our time with our kids. For other things that we claim are not as important.
[00:03:51] And I'm not talking about doing this from time to time. I'm talking about when we make it a habit that creates frustration, it creates [00:04:00] anger. It destroys relationships. It keeps us from being able to really be our authentic self and take care of ourselves. And as we do that, what ends up happening is we get out of alignment.
[00:04:14] And we began to feel fear, frustration, anger, and eventually. We burn ourselves out. It happens time after time. And one reason that it does is we look for what I call the myth of work-life balance, where we try to make everything in our life equal. We'll spend an equal amount of time with each of our kids.
[00:04:36] We'll spend an equal amount of time with our spouse. We'll spend an equal amount of time at work. We'll spend an equal amount of times with our church and other people around us. And yet. When you add it all up, it means that we would have to have way more than 24 hours in a day to be able to do that.
[00:04:54] See balance doesn't mean everything is the same all the time. Instead, what it [00:05:00] means is it's in alignment with your true values. It means that you've made a conscious decision, that some things are going to have to be let go of or going to be put at the bottom of the list because other things need to be at the top of the list.
[00:05:16] Because that is the real truth. The alignment is more important than the time, but most of us don't ever even think about it. When new tasks come up, we just jump on them. We just start doing them. We don't even think about what else it means when we say yes to an opportunity, we don't think about what does it mean?
[00:05:37] We're saying no to. The truth is that giving of your time giving to others of your time is only done well, when you first taking care of yourself, when you first filled your own cup. Because only out of strength, can we give to other people? And yet [00:06:00] all too often, we try to give to other people out of weakness because we do it while we'll struggle ourselves.
[00:06:06] We do it. Why we're exhausted because we've been trying to do too many things. And then we bite someone's head off and we are surprised that we've done it, but the truth is it was predictable. It was going to happen sooner or later. The positivity is great. But it can only really last if you also take care of yourself, if you've also built your own strength and that includes learning and building the ability to say no, to look at an opportunity that comes along and go, you know what?
[00:06:39] This is a great opportunity, but now it's not the right time. I need to say no to this so that I can say yes to something that's more important in my life. Maybe that spending time with the kids, maybe that spending time with your spouse, maybe that is doing something at work. But instead of saying yes to everything we have to consciously decide, what is [00:07:00] the opportunity cost here?
[00:07:01] What are we saying no to by saying yes to this opportunity, but that's hard to do that requires strength and it requires actually thinking about it and then being intentional in how we use and give our time for ourselves and for others. I know people that say that prayer time is important, but they haven't actually sat down for a dedicated prayer time for months and months, they attend worship on Sunday, but then they stepped back and they don't have any.
[00:07:33] Personal time for devotional. I know people that say that their family is their most important thing, but they've missed 10 or 12 family events in a row because of something else that comes into their consciousness and blocks their ability to do the family thing. And honestly, if that's happening to you, it's because you haven't developed your own strength and intentionality first, that [00:08:00] is the key.
[00:08:01] To being able to give and serve others. Thanks for listening.
[00:08:05]Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you liked this episode on the stewardship of time, be sure to sign up for our stewardship of time tips series by going to inspired stewardship.com/time or texting four four, two, two, two time tips, and that'll get you our best tips on stewarding your time until next time.
[00:08:50] Invest your time. Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world. .