Personal Business

 I’ve been musing about business and personal separation a lot lately. Tell me if you know any of these characters:

The one who leaves for work at 7:30, comes home around 6 and is off one day out of seven, which day it is changes weekly.

The small business person who is mentally at work 24/7.

The unemployed one with all the home and social planning responsibilities.

The service industry one who works evening/night shifts and every weekend/holiday.

The full-time student who struggles to find time for a shower.

The full-time teacher who teaches all day, plans out the next day all night, and spends the summer trying to maintain relevance.

I’ve known them. I’ve been them. Not completely, since these are characters, not real, multilayered people. I remember when I was first dating my husband and realized he read books for personal reasons as well as for school. I was the kind of person who had every 15 minutes planned out from 6:30 AM to 10:30 PM. I have a German sense of order with American ideals of productivity. I didn’t realize until then though, that it is important to schedule personal time. Time to be you, a child of God: someone unique, living in this time now. It’s popularly called self-care, and bubble-baths tend to be mentioned. I’ve realized what is important isn’t the bubble bath though, it’s the focus on now with a perspective of personal space within the cosmos. 

I think for those with the least flexible schedules prayer would be sufficient time and space. However, that is not a balanced life. When I allowed myself to read again for pleasure, my life was significantly more in balance with my ideals and goals. It’s great to do what you love as your work, but not great when you don’t maintain space in your personal life to do what you love as well. It’s a personal project. It’s allowing yourself to play in the sandbox. If you play in a sandbox for your job maybe play with water on your personal time, or play in a sandbox you choose yourself. It’s an incredible opportunity to feed your soul. 

I think there is a third area of life to separate. That is social relationships. They take time, money, work, and they result in joy, learning, and trust. Three branches of a life which all benefit each other. It’s a three legged stool you can support and balance life with.

We could use more or the order of business in our personal and social pursuits, more of the heart of personal in social and business pursuits, and more of the joy of social in our business and personal pursuits.