The Joy Podcast
A women's guide to living a joy-filled life. We are here to help women find their purpose and joy in the hard things of life by having real and raw faith-based conversations surrounding a woman's daily life. Topics include, motherhood, marriage, careers, friendships, and so much more.
The Joy Podcast
Intentional Living in Balancing Work and Life
Have you ever wondered how to truly balance work and life, especially when the concept of a perfect balance seems unattainable? Join us on the Joy Podcast as we share personal journeys of navigating the complexities of work-life prioritization. Hear firsthand how to set boundaries for work hours and how to communicate these effectively with family. Katrina & Allison provide practical tips for managing time and commitments, emphasizing the value of recognizing life's different seasons and adjusting priorities accordingly. We offer a fresh perspective on handling interruptions by viewing them as divine appointments rather than frustrations.
In this episode, Katrina & Allison also discuss the importance of finding purpose in every job, no matter how temporary or seemingly insignificant. Hear reflections on experiences at our first teenage jobs, revealing how every job can teach valuable life lessons and forge meaningful relationships. We highlight the significance of doing each task with intention and for the glory of God, inspired by Colossians 3:23. Navigating toxic work environments and seeking God's guidance for new opportunities are also key topics, alongside the role of past experiences in shaping our personal and professional growth. By prioritizing tasks and being fully present in each moment, we offer insights into maintaining a balanced life that aligns with God's purpose.
Welcome to the Joy Podcast, your women's guide to living a joy-filled life. We are your co-hosts, katrina Morris and Allison Jordan. We are grateful you joined us, as we have real and raw, faith-based conversations surrounding motherhood, marriage, careers, friendships and everything else in a woman's daily life. That's right, ladies, grab your cup of coffee and pull up a chair as we dive into all the things. Hello everybody, and welcome to this episode of the Joy Podcast. We're excited to be finalizing our series on intentional living.
Speaker 1:Today and this week we're talking all about the work life balance, however you want to call it. You know, katrina, you mentioned something earlier and it really, I mean it got me thinking about this, because I always thought of work, life and balancing it out. But you said something that kind of struck a chord with me. Tell everybody else what you were talking about. Well, I think we've all had struggles of the work-life balance and tried to figure it all out, and what I experienced a few years ago is there really is no balance. It's about prioritization, and prioritizing where you are in your season of life and wherever you are with your family and your work. So there's something that's always going to fall. There's something that's always going to be more of a priority, and so I think that's really where we have to recognize first is where we are in life and our seasons. And I guess when we talk about balance, we're talking about, you know, I picture those. What is it? Those scales where you have the things in it and you're trying to keep them balanced together. But when you said there's never really going to be a balance, you're going to sometimes the family's going to get priority, sometimes work may be busy and needs a priority, yeah, so let's kind of talk about maybe the work part of it first, or jobs or things like that. Yeah, the work part of it first, or jobs or things like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I think you know so, for me, being a business owner and prior to this I was in the corporate world you do have a work time frame and I think the boundary set first is very important. I really had to learn that the hard way because I'm an emailer at nine o'clock, you know, 930. I did try to cut it off by then, but that's too late, you know. So having a boundary of work itself is so important and setting that tone for your clients, your customers, or you know, when you're work. When you go into your work, they want you to come from eight to five, or eight 30 to five, and so having that boundary set up first is very important, but secondary to that, it is as a business owner. We do set those boundaries.
Speaker 1:But it's understanding that. You know I need to communicate with my kids. I am at work and I need y'all to understand that, and so I am here for you. You can text me, you can call me, but understand that it needs to be an emergency, it needs to be something. Mom, I can't find my white socks, and I have had those. Mom, I forgot my shorts, and so you know, it's not about deprioritizing certain things, but during a time frame in the day or at nighttime, there needs to be the prioritization of I'm giving my business, or I'm giving my customers or wherever I'm doing for work, 90% of that total investment of me. And so then the 10% though I allow for, I say divine appointments because you never know we call them interventions, not interventions.
Speaker 1:Lord have mercy. Those divine appointments, we used to call them interruptions, that's the word. But when we look at them as interruptions, we do recognize that that becomes frustrating, but when we look at them as interruptions. We do recognize that that becomes frustrating, but when we look at them as divine appointments, we have to know that that can take up a little bit of our time, but it doesn't need to take up the rest of our day, because then when we get frustrated that breeds into more of our time and it becomes harder to set that boundary our time and it'd be harder to set that boundary. So for me it's about when I'm at work I'm given 90 to almost a hundred percent, and we should.
Speaker 1:I mean whether we're a business owner, like you're yourself, but or if you're working for an employer. I mean that they deserve our attention, they deserve our work ethic, they deserve all of that, and as a business owner, your clients deserve that, like your business deserves that. And so how do we, how can we be intentional while we're at work? So we have set those boundaries. So we're at work. Yes, we know, we know sometimes we're going to have the owner. They're interruptions, yeah. But so what are some things that you have done to say you know what this is how? Because you've worked for an employer and now you're a business owner. So what are some things that you can say are here's how I am intentional to give my clients what they deserve that I can give my employer. You know to give my all and be intentional, right, so it's really again employer. You know to give my all and be intentional, right. So it's really again recognizing the time. You know the timeframe that you're spending.
Speaker 1:There are certain seasons that I'm busier during the year. There are certain projects that demand more, that are larger, and so there may be a time where I have to have a discussion with the kids or Scott and say, look, you know, we've got this commercial project that we're working on and I need, you know, extra time. I'm going to have to have you pick up the kids or dinner for a certain amount of time. So there is a season of recognizing where you are. But then there's also when you set that boundary and you say, okay, I've got to stop at a certain time. You set that boundary and you say, ok, I've got to stop at a certain time. You then turn that off as much as you can and then you are spending your investment time in your kids or your family. So once I cut it off, I go home and I have to be fully present for them. Yeah, if there is something that needs my laptop sometimes, I'll do that once they go to bed.
Speaker 1:But again, we have to recognize that. Are we spending 90% of our time at work and only 10% of the time with our family, spending intentional time with our family? That for me may be a small season, but it's not every day all day. So our holiday season being in the retail and design is a busy season. So I have to recognize that as just being that. It's a busy season, so it is going to take more intention during those times, more focus, absolutely. So we have to stop and say, okay, okay, let's take the kids to see christmas lights, let's take a day and bake, let's do these things. There is always decisions that need to be made, intentional decisions, right, and you know we had talked also allison about.
Speaker 1:Preliminary to this is what if you're in a job that you just don't love and you understand it to be, because I do love running a business, I love what I do, you love being a preschool director and all of those things, and so you know how do you be intentional when you know that you're trying to find work, life balance or priorities, but you don't love what you're doing. It's a stepping stone, you know. Tell us about that a little bit. What advice can we give? Well, you know, you and I were talking because we have been blessed to be a part of work that we loved. Yeah, I was a preschool director for almost 20 years. I retired from that now and you were in corporate world and now you're a business owner, which you love, and so we've been blessed to be able to be a part of things that we've loved. And so, in that, it's easy to be intentional, to have integrity, have integrity for your clients or for those school families, give them your all smile and you know, when you're with them, to do everything you can.
Speaker 1:But what happens when we have a job that maybe it's just a stepping stone, maybe it's, maybe it's not a career that I want to be a part of for the rest of my life? And you know, I think back to my very first job when I was 16, most of us that first job that we have. We know it's not going to be the one that we're going to stay in forever and ever and ever, but I was, I was thinking about that and you and I were talking because you know, god put me in that job and my first job was at Chick-fil-A. I was 16 years old and I will say I mean, that's the Lord's chicken. We all know that and I love Chick-fil-A.
Speaker 1:But I started there mainly because you know it was at the mall and they didn't work. They were closed on Sundays and you know we had to be at church on Sunday. My daddy said we could not work on Sunday, so I was going to be at church. So I mean that was the perfect job for me. And so, going in that to that job, I knew that was not going to be my forever job. But you know what happened at that job. I met my husband there. What happened at that job, I met my husband there. And so you know, you might be in a position where you think, okay, this is not a job that I'm passionate about, this is not something I want to stay at, but we can still give it our all, we can still be intentional. And so I think back to that first job and I made friends there. I mean my husband and I we have a romance. We fell in love over the nugget fryer. We're crying out loud. I mean just the smell of those nuggets just make me fall in love with my husband more and more. Oh, I love it.
Speaker 1:But what is the verse we were talking about? About working? Read that verse for everybody today. Yeah, so Colossians 3, 23 says whatever you do, do it from the heart, as something done for the Lord and not for people. And that is so important because, like you, I don't. I might've liked working at Chick-fil-A, cause I do love some. I love chicken, yes, yes, and it's always your pleasure. You know. Yeah, we didn't say that back then, but I would have told me, but I would have. If they told me to, I would have.
Speaker 1:But you know, when you're doing a job, whether it be your first job, your third job, or you maybe work 10 or 15, you don't know you know where you're supposed to go. Now it's really that intentionality to be present in wherever you are and not to do it for other people, because those people don't write your paychecks. You're supposed to do it for the Lord, right? That's where it's a shift in perspective, when you realize, like you said, when you read that verse, it's just that reminder for me that, yeah, whatever job that I'm working for, I may have an employer that actually puts their signature on my paycheck. But when I realized that that is God's provision, like you said, that I am truly working for the Lord, that is a shift in perspective that changes everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and if you have a boss who writes your paychecks but you're not happy where you are, it's okay to look for another job. I would say don't do it on the clock. That's a work-life balance, right? Don't ever do that. Don't do it at your job. But it's okay to have a desire to step forward or to move to another career or to get out of that job that you're in, especially when you do have a boss.
Speaker 1:And I've been there too. I've been there where in my early 20s oh man, it was I was in a toxic work environment, I was going through nursing school and it was very difficult, and so I remember just hating to go into work. But again, you know what I learned from that? I learned about people. I learned how to deal with people, deal with difficult people. You know, I learned that some people will just never be happy. And so there, god is not going to waste anything on us.
Speaker 1:If you're in a job and it's dead end and you, you just do not like it. There's no balance or priority for you other than getting that paycheck and getting out. You know, ask the Lord to, to guide and give you, you know, just a sense of direction. There's nothing wrong with it. If you are living, you still have a purpose, there is breath in your lungs, you are here and it's not too late. I don't care if you're 70. I don't care if you're 40. It's not too late.
Speaker 1:And so we just moved here, you know, when I was 41 and so I'm 43 now, and this really does feel like a second part of our life. It has been a rebuilding, it's been a new foundation and it's been also learning everything that I learned. From my 16 year old immature self to my 20s, to 30, to 40. I learned, and now, as I've re um, we have the business here. Now it's like just a restart and everything that you learned I've built, you bring into where you are now. Yes, and you recognize, okay, I learned that in my 20s, I learned that at this other job, so nothing was wasted. But saying in my 40s that we've rebuilt a company or we moved intentionally and started a new business, it really is about learning what you can take away from everything you've experienced before and putting those things in place.
Speaker 1:And my first job was in retail and I remember working in retail. It was in the mall, it was actually express. It was in our mall, it was actually Express. We both started in the mall, the Express it was in our mall too. I love dressing those mannequins. So how about the casual corner one time? I remember that We'll have to talk. Yes, I do remember not loving it at that time, but I went in. It was a paycheck. I did enjoy some of the competition that they had. They had like sales. If you sold a necklace and an outfit, you know, or an accessory with clothing, you would get bonuses and stuff, and so it did intrigue me.
Speaker 1:And so, as I'm in my forties now and I have had a retail store in Virginia before we moved, I loved it and so my love for retail and my love for the holidays was really born when I was 16. I mean, I always loved Christmas at home anyway, but something about when they're starting to decorate at the mall and you turn on the Christmas music and you're and everything is just festive and it's warm and inviting, and I love that creative part, and so I get chills talking about it. I'm going to put the Christmas music on a little bit today I am. But I get chills because I think I do have a desire to have a, a retail store, a full retail store, in the future, because I love that. I'm passionate about it.
Speaker 1:See you, you hit the nail on the head there, because you're talking about whatever. Like you probably didn't know back then when you started your little retail job at 16 at the mall, that this is where you would be today, oh lord. So, and when I started at Chick-fil-A I didn't know I was going to meet my husband. So when I look at, I've never wasted anything. So if you look at it with that kind of perspective, that even if you're in a position to where this is not a job you want to keep maybe it's a toxic environment, like you mentioned God can still use that for your good and for his glory, for your good and for his glory.
Speaker 1:So when you go back to that scripture in Colossians to work for the Lord, not for work when you realize that you're working for the Lord, not for human masters, that changes everything. Yes, and so then you go into it and you go into your job with intention to be the best, the hardest worker that you can possibly be, and you give it your all that you can possibly be, and you give it your all. And then you praise God for it and recognize every provision truly comes from him and that you're able to provide and put food on your table, put gas in your car and we all know how high those things are right now. So you praise God for it all, and that is a change in perspective. And you give your clients, your customers, whatever you give them, your best. You smile, you are polite, you just go into it. All we can do.
Speaker 1:When we're talking about this whole series on intentional living, it starts with us what can I do in the situation that I'm in now? And, yes, if we need to get out of that situation, then we work towards that, we give it, we surrender it to the lord and we work towards it. But now, okay, so I have to leave that job and I have to go home. So, when I go home, what if we, what if you are in this busy season? So what do you do, katrina, then, when you take it home, how do you balance that at home? Where do you prioritize, and that's where it is a prioritization and not a balance, because it's maybe you leave your phone in the car. We have the luxury now of putting it on silent. Yeah, so we do not disturb. So we do that for a certain amount of time and we are fully present in where we are at that moment. So if we know we're coming home, the kids are there, dinner, all those things need to be done, being fully present, you're going to be more happy when you're fully present, right? And your family deserves that. No, yeah, they do deserve that.
Speaker 1:And so even if so let's say a different scenario, even and this just came to me so sorry if I'm script a little bit or off the cuff but what about those that have the luxury of not going into work every day and they're home with their kids every day? But you have a dream, maybe, of one day owning your own business, starting a company or doing something special. I think you still need to show up daily, wholeheartedly, because you're working for the Lord, for your kids, for cleaning the house, for doing those mundane tasks. If you're not getting a paycheck per se, you're still doing work for the Lord and you're raising those kids, supporting your family, your husband, and so much more than you could even think you would be doing. You know the nurturing and so I feel like for me because I do love to work, which is weird to say when I go home it is being intentional and fully being there, because if I focus on all the things that I have to do, I'm going to be grumpy, I'm going to be irritated, I may snap, and so that's where there's no balance, it's just the priority, like walking in saying, okay, I just had a busy day at work and maybe it was a great day. I got to do this and I got to do the laundry and you know, the toilet needs scrubbing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, we can get in a rotten attitude. Yeah, yeah, and I think what you have said before is keep the main thing. The main thing. Yeah, and wherever you are, whether it's 8 30 in the morning, you're clocking in, it's five o'clock in the afternoon, you're clocking out, it's 7 30 at night, you're putting your kids to bed and giving them a bath be fully present there. You can be praying under your breath. Lord, you know I have so much to do. I love you. Will you just help me to be fully present Because we are to pray without ceasing. And that doesn't mean we're down on our hands and knees, we're praying fully and in our closet. That just means mentally, yes, that attitude of prayer. That just means mentally, yes, that attitude of prayer. Mentally we're like Lord, please help me just to be fully present, because your family deserves that.
Speaker 1:And recognizing self-reflection, right, self-discovery If you haven't been fully present for a very long time with your family, with your friends, if you're a single woman, it doesn't matter With your community, you might want to step back right and really do some self-reflection and be present for those people. It can be so hard to separate the two. But, like you and I were talking, there's a point, you know, in all of our years, my husband too, in his position with work, and I remember him telling me it was always a struggle for him to to put it up and or, you know, because he was thinking about it and his job of safety and things like that, and I remember him saying he would have to sit in the car before he would come in the house and just pray. Lord, you know, help me, just leave this here so I can go in and be present with my family and he got to be where. I would learn so much from that, because in my days at home with the kids, when I was a stay-at-home mom, I was in that mode of mom mode all the time, and there were times I would take that for granted because that was my job, but you didn't get a break from that. I loved that. It was some precious times that I'll never, ever regret being home with those kids, and I loved every part of it. And then when I did go back out into the work field and become a preschool director, I did bring a lot of that home. And so there were times that I could sit at home with my family and watch movies while I was trying to get the school year started and work on my computer.
Speaker 1:But during the COVID years, when all of that was going being a preschool director during COVID, I remember we had just finished up the school year what, I guess, if you call it finished, do we ever really get to finish it. And my husband and I had gone to Virginia to go to the mountains and I was struggling with that. Okay, I needed to do this, I needed to do this and get summer camp and I needed to do this and I was going to walk down to the lake where Matt was down there fishing. And I remember walking down and I had my computer, I had my, had everything with me and we had just technically finished up the year. I should have taken a break, but I couldn't. Yeah, like I was, I was not keeping the main thing, the main thing, like you and I had talked about. And so I walked down there and I see my husband down there fishing. Now, his work was crazy, but he was on vacation and he knew how to split it. And I went in that moment I remember being so grateful for him and I asked him I'm like how, how do you just cut it off? He said you don't necessarily cut it off. You just, like you said, you prioritize where do I need to be in this moment? And so I put my stuff aside for a little bit and just enjoyed watching him fish.
Speaker 1:But it's in those moments when we say keep the main thing, the main thing. What is your main thing right now? When you're at work, what's your main thing that you need, and give it your all. When you're at home, what's your main thing that you need and give it your all. When you're at home, what's your main thing? And give it your all. And so it's hard to prioritize. So it takes some practice to say, all right, in this moment, what is the most important thing? If that's putting everything aside and spending time with your family and giving them your undivided attention, then you go all in and you do that. Yeah, if you're at work, or maybe you're at home and you're in a busy season, like you talked about in those retail months, and your family understands, okay, this is mom's busy season. So, right now, at home, to keep the main thing, the main thing, I can sit in a room with my family, but I can also take care of this because we all know this is where I need to be in this moment. So it's like you have to know only you know what is your main thing in that time. So find that to keep that intention, be intentional at home, be intentional at work, and there really can be. I guess, if you want to call it balance, by that we mean, like you said, that prioritization of knowing what's the most important right now and then just remembering that you're resting in the Lord for that, yes, you're working for him.
Speaker 1:And there is a verse and you probably know it. It's the verse that says if you work but you lose your family and you lose everything, you've gained nothing. Oh, yes, oil, yes, I'll have to, we'll have to find that. Work but you lose your family and you lose everything you've gained nothing, oh, yes. Well, yes, I'll have to, we'll have to find that. But it's just it really talks about if all you do is work, you're laboring in vain, yeah, and you're. There's nothing to gain from that. If you lose your family but you're working all the time and you gain, you, you know monetary, you know assets and the biggest house and all of that, that's not true success. Success really is written in the Bible as being able to bring heaven down, bring the spirit of the Lord into what you're doing and give it all your give it all you've got, whether you're bagging groceries or not, or wiping butts and all of it. So, whatever you're doing, and doing it for the Lord, because then you recognize, did you find it? Yeah, okay, it's Psalm 127.
Speaker 1:One. It says unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain, unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand and watch in vain. Yeah, so unless the Lord builds the house. So we want the Lord to build our house, right, yeah, we want the Lord to build our house, and the only way we can do that is to surrender it to him and let him have it. We can try it, we can do it, but I'm going to tell you what that house is going to fall flat if I'm doing it, me too.
Speaker 1:And in this hustle culture, we have to understand that work-life balance priorities requires rest, and we've discussed that as well, and I think that's some of the challenge that I would love to offer today is really do some self-reflection of your rest, your work-life balance, and where are you, and be real. You know he knows. You know right now where you are and if you are a new Christian and maybe you're not a Christian and you're just learning all of this you know you. When you become a Christian, the Holy Spirit indwells in you and there's a seed planted and you nurture and you grow that seed by spending time, and that is the best time. So number one priority for work-life balance is spending time with the Lord, absolutely Before you work, before you live life.
Speaker 1:You know. If you get up earlier in the morning. It starts as a discipline and then it becomes a passion. You, you discipline yourself to get up. You get up for exercising, you get up because you have to. But if you set that up for that coffee, that's right. I certainly do, amen. But set your priority to give the Lord his time, yeah, and it will cultivate a different kind of life and before you know it, you'll have that work life priority straight and you'll have more joy, and that's what it's all about.
Speaker 1:And you don't get it right all the time. I can tell you I messed up plenty of times. Yes, I did too. I mean, it takes time and I never got it always perfect, and I'm sure you don't feel like you do either. So it takes, it takes work to do that, but it takes more than that. It takes surrender before the Lord, and that's where we've got to rest in that. You know you were talking about just times of rest and I think that's going to go great with where we're headed next on next week's episode yes, so that's it for today. Next, we're headed next on next week's episode. Yes, so that's it for today. Next week we are going to talk about reclaiming your peace. This summer. We're going to give you a challenge and we're going to talk about some things that will help you reclaim your peace pretty much immediately. So get excited about that. Yes, I'm really excited. I'm ready for next week.
Speaker 1:But if you found this helpful and you love our podcast, please leave us a five-star review. We love you, we thank you for showing up and we are your women's guide to live in a joy filled life, and we are so thankful that you were here. That's right. Thanks everybody for joining us today. Thank you for joining us for this episode of the joy podcast. Our passion is to help you find your purpose and joy in the hard things of life. Join our conversation by liking, following and subscribing so you don't miss the next episode. We are grateful for you and would love your feedback. Please leave us a five star review wherever you listen to this podcast.