I’m finishing up my “Lessons Learned from Dave” series of posts today. I’ve been passing along some of my best leadership learnings from Dave Ramsey. You can find the first 3 installments here, here, and here.

The fourth and final lesson is:

Evaluate WORK-LIFE BALANCE over the long haul

I meet a lot of church leaders who carry around guilt because of what they perceive as a lack of balance between “the ministry” and the rest of their life.

I found a great deal of wisdom in Dave’s approach to this sensitive and vitally important issue.

As I mentioned on Monday, Dave keeps an incredible schedule. In spite of that, he manages to maintain a strong and involved family life. How, you ask? By balancing his hard work with longer periods off.

He presses hard for a stretch, then takes some time off to be with his family. This is directly in line with the idea of “stress and release” that many of you have heard me talk about.

Dave pointed out that we have to be careful not to try to measure our Work-Life balance everyday. We should, instead, be intentional about measuring it every quarter, or even over the course of a year.

In other words, we don’t have to try to spend equal amounts of time at work and with the family every single day. That’s not a practical or realistic goal. There will be periods of time when we are heavily focused on one or the other, but our goal should be a healthy balance over time.

By focusing on maintaining a balanced lifestyle over the long term, you actually get more time with the family than trying to squeeze in a few minutes when you’re exhausted at the end of the day.

So, looking back over the last 6 months, how is your work-life balance? What are you going to do over the next 6 months to insure that you, your family, and your ministry all remain healthy?

He must manage his own family well, having children who respect and obey him. For if a man cannot manage his own household, how can he take care of God’s church?

1 Timothy 3:4-5

P.S. Do you have a plan to become a better Christ follower, spouse, father, and church leader by this time next year?
Check out Developing a One Year Personal Growth Plan.