Faith and Business 101: Distractions and Boundaries
This week, let’s talk about distractions. As mothers, we are faced with countless distractions throughout the day: phone calls, e-mails, unexpected interruptions, emergencies…you name it! It’s difficult to focus on your work when little things come up and distract you. Maybe you’re working in an office and you have a huge deadline. What should you do when the nurse calls from school to alert you that your child is sick? Maybe you’re a work-from-home mom and you’re in the middle of an important assignment and a friend (who knows very well that you’re home everyday) shows up on your doorstep with her latest crisis. What then? Whether at home or at an office, we all have to make judgment calls everyday when it comes to distractions.
What’s the first step?
Develop some boundaries! If you have good, healthy boundaries set up at the office, your boss will understand that your family comes first. And when that call comes from the school nurse, neither of you will think twice about you jumping in your car and picking up your child. Work can wait until you can sort out another plan. If you have healthy boundaries, you will feel confident in your decision to quickly pray with your friend who shows up on your porch in a mild-crisis and let her know that you will have more time to chat with her on another day (now of-course, I’m not suggesting you be short with a friend who is in REAL need! By all means, invite THAT person in and love on them as much as you can! But I believe you know the kind of person I was referring to…the kind that likes to take advantage of you just because they know you are at home with “nothing better to do” than listen to their latest drama).
Here’s your Faith and Business 101 assignment for this week: Check out the book “Boundaries” by Henry Cloud and John Townsend. This is the best book on the market about this subject in my opinion. It will most definitely speak into your situation and help you think clearly about yourself and your boundaries, or lack thereof. Feel like you have way too many distractions in your life and you are always just spinning your wheels? You need boundaries! Healthy ones. Ask the Lord to show you where you need to develop better boundaries in your life, your business and your relationships! You will feel like a brand new person who can actually get some work done. Healthy boundaries put distractions in their place!
Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:14-15
Until next time…
MariLee
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