Good morning everyone,
I apologize for being a little late on this blog. Evidentally, when you purchase a new surface pro you do not get Microsoft office with it. It gets me thinking about how much is enough. I have been brought up with PC’s and kinda know how to run a Mac. I do not want to get into a discussion of which is better, but I am seeing why people like the Macs now. I will just leave it as I am more comfortable with Microsoft products at this point. It is not to say I won’t get used to Macs if this keeps up.
So on to move important things.
Over the past six months I have had the opportunity to join a group of business leaders from my area. This is a group of individuals from all walks of life. Pastors, to construction companies, to authors and speakers. This is a very diverse group of individuals. It has been very helpful when working on project like the book that I am creating now. Insights that one person would not be able to think of on their own.
The group has a fee, but has provided more value so far. I can keep you posted on this if you would like. The group is called Truth at Work. It is based in the mid-west, but is growing its online presence so that people from other locations could interact as well. I have seen this online advisor groups with Dave Ramsey and John Maxwell over the past couple of years as well. The one thing I can say about being in a half a day meeting with individuals in one location is the human interaction that we all crave. Online is great, but most interactions are between individuals. More than 80 percent of communication is nonverbal. So logging online is great, but I prefer to be present and shaking hands, laughing and carrying on with the individuals to hear about their personal lives as well.
If you have been looking for other individuals as a set of advisors I would recommend checking out groups. It has helped me greatly in building relationships in this area with other business owners as well as personal relationships with them. If you would like to discuss these groups feel free to reach out by email and I will get back to you and help answer any questions that I can. If I can’t I will do my very best to help you get in contact with someone that would be able to answer.
One of the topics this month was titled “How Much is Enough” this discussion was focused on business and in personal life. This discussion topic focused on asking us the questions to drive out thought on how much is enough in business as well as our personal lives whether it be money, spiritual based, how much work to put in, family time, giving away, etc. I have been groomed all my life to be one to push forward and get all I can which I have to admit has in the past come at a cost. I had missed most of the first six months of my son’s life because I was on the road almost 130 nights selling.
I wanted to prove that I was the best and I was able to achieve the awards and bonuses that all that hard work entailed. It came at a cost of missing my son’s firsts. I look back on that as I took this assessment as well as in my past as a guage of what I am willing to sacrifice in some areas in order to achieve in other areas.
We are also told to work to perfection by just about all people in our industries. Be the best and be perfect because if someone sees a flaw in you then you will lose. The truth is that no one is perfect. We can work to the best of our abilities, but none of us can say we are going to be perfect in all we do. That goes to the fact that we need to continually grow, refine, and get better. We also need to take a step back and review where we are at in areas of our life to see how much more we believe we need to get better and those costs. This also ties into your goals and what you want to work to get better at. Most people set annual goals, but some people do it monthly. I am an annual goal person personally.
We can carry on the discussion later if you would like but for now I would like to leave you with some questions to help you with this thought of how much is enough.
How many hours of work do you work?
How big do you want your company to grow this year?
How many employees do I need to hire and what does their work load look like?
How much should I be giving to church, charities, anyone in need?
Should I carry debt? (I live by no debt as a Dave Ramsey disciple, debt causes too much pressure for more in my opinion)
How much time am I spending with my family and friends?
What steps can I take from here to move my work / life balance?
As always if you have questions, want to dig deeper, or if you would like to ask about other topics feel free to reach out to me at info@kevinsidebottom.com. Also you can comment to the blog to keep the conversation going with other readers.
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
Sales and Leadership Enterprises