Balancing Your Life and Career

John: Good morning. This is John Garrett coming to you on a Monday morning with another episode of Green Apple Slices. Let me bring in my co-host, the Accountants Group Leader for everything good in Canada and chocolate and rainbows and all kinds of — oh, I don’t know — for Sage, Rachel Fisch. There she is.

Rachel: Hey, John. How are you doing today?

John: Excellent. Really, really good. Really, really good.

Rachel: Good.

John: It’s always great to have you back. I’m always amazed when I call you and you pick up. So much appreciated.

Rachel: You’re welcome.

John: Every week we always talk through an article that we found online. And this one was actually a little more of an interview that I found. And it was “Balancing Your Life and Career.” And there were some tips form a career expert, Jena Abernathy. And I know that you feel like this is a bit of an intervention. We have to remind Rachel again.

Rachel: Yes. Usually, anytime we’re looking at an article that has any element of like work-life balance, it’s like, “What are you trying to tell me, John?”

John: I’m just trying to help out. But this one is actually a little bit of an intervention for myself, to be honest with you. There were a lot of tips in here that I took in. There are actually 12.

Rachel: Which is a lot.

John: But to spare everyone, if you want to see all 12, you can go to greenapplepodcast.com. We’re going to just talk through a couple. And one that really stood out to me was number six of “Just focus on what matters,” which is a lot easier said than done I think sometimes.

Rachel: Well, for sure. I find that sometimes I get kind of stressed out about petty little things. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed that about me, but that’s definitely something that I’ve needed to practice for myself is just in the middle of stressing about something, just kind of stop and step back and see if it’s really worth the time that you’re giving, whatever situation you’re in or whatever you’re stressing about.

John: Right, right, because when you stress, those things build up. That stressful hour becomes stressful days, stressful weeks. You’re losing focus. By just focusing on what really matters, of the why you are doing this? having pictures of the cool things you like to do or your hobbies or your passions or the reasons behind why you’re doing all of these. So having those around you or having people around you that share those hobbies and interests with the Green Apple message really helps out. It helps you remember the good things and also takes a little bit of that stress away. So I thought that was a good one. Any ones that stuck out to you?

Rachel: Connecting with friends and family, of course. I have two little girls — six and a half and now 11. It’s just making sure that they remember what I look like. No, but I tend to travel a lot and so between my husband and kids, it’s really important that we have that phone call or that FaceTime or that Skype or whatever program we’re using at any given time every day if possible, just to make sure that we ask about their days and we connect and they can hear a bit of my day a bit. Also, when I get home after being away, it’s not like this huge dump of, okay, now I have to remember what I did all week. So just having those quick connections throughout the day or while I’m away has really helped it go a little easier on all of us.

John: Yeah, yeah, that’s for sure. Absolutely. You know, two other ones that kind of dovetail with the Green Apple message were just take your vacation and make time for you. It’s too easy to get wrapped in more work, more work, more work. I need to hit my chargeability codes. I need this new project. I’m taking on more things than maybe I should be. And sometimes we forget about that.

Rachel: For sure.

John: Because if we don’t unplug, if we don’t remove — you know, I just remember several guests on the Green Apple Podcast that have talked about how important it is that they run or that they ride their bicycles or that they do something where they’re completely unplugged.

Rachel: Right. And in my time when I had my own business, my first vacation, it was a full two-week vacation, that was huge test for me as a business owner to see if what I’ve built as a business, to see if it would survive with me being away. It was a huge test, and I think small business people feel that they can’t. But it was a huge test, not only for my staff to be able to make decisions and continue to work without me but also with my clients to maybe not be quite as dependent on me. Also, a test for myself. Am I able to take that time away? So to be able to successfully do that, there were just a couple of very smalls fires during those two weeks. But overall it was a complete success and to me it meant that I was actually building something where we were serving the clients. My staff were able to serve the clients without me directly involved, which to me was a success.

John: Yeah, yeah. So is this your way of telling me that you’re not really come back for a while?

Rachel: I’ll be back next week as always. But another thing is that just because you don’t have amazing vacation plans doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t still be taking your vacation days. So be a tourist in your own city or go to a local beach or do something that is you just checking out for a little while.

John: Right, absolutely, absolutely. Well, everyone heard it; you’re going to be back. So we got one more week at least with Rachel. So that’s awesome. No, no, it’s always great talking with you. If everyone wants to read the transcript or see the whole interview, you can go to greenapplepodcast.com. And thanks so much for all the reviews on iTunes and Android apps and then sharing it with your friends.

So thanks so much, Rachel. Have a great rest of the week.

Rachel: You too, John. Talk to you later.