Living with Margin

Do you like to live life on the edge?  Are you a risk taker or adrenaline junkie who gets a thrill over pushing to the absolute limits of the human experience?  Or do you feel like you are standing on the verge of a cliff, not in control, where one small move and all bets are off?  While there is a sense of adventure in pushing ourselves to the fringe of what our bodies, minds, and talents can do; I have come to see that living a balanced life is not effective or conducive towards that approach.  I have been encouraged recently to live my life instead with margins.  While taking risks and going beyond the edge of the paper margins of life can lead us to amazing breakthroughs, it can also lead towards a life that is lonely, unbalanced, and unfulfilled.  What does it look like to live with proper margins in every facet of life and how could this impact opportunities that come my way?

What would life look like if each work day did not end with using 100{16e476496f5f3a73cb19f20a476d08f8bca71b0bf9338242f1d2bf6ed337f382} of my energy tank at the office, leaving nothing for my family waiting for me at home?  What impact would leaving margin in my energy, love, and creative tanks to share have on conversations, relationships, and opportunities outside of the workplace?

What would business look like if meetings were not scheduled back to back to back and instead built in margin to process new information obtained in those meetings, leaving the door open for conversation beyond the agenda, and not feeling like I’m always moving on to the next ‘thing’ before truly finishing the one I’m on?

What would finances look like if spending was done within a margin of living on less than what comes in?  Not a new concept, but revolutionary to the dynamics of many families and marriages to focus less on stuff and more on the freedom that comes without the burden of debt.

There will always be seasons to life.  Times where work must take a front seat to recreation or that parenting requires more daily output than what seems humanly possible.  Eb and flow to life is natural.  But what would the possibilities be if instead of living with our gas tank running on red 100{16e476496f5f3a73cb19f20a476d08f8bca71b0bf9338242f1d2bf6ed337f382} of the time, but leaving margin so that when shifts in seasons happen, there is extra energy, time, money to pursue the neglected or new opportunities.

I personally have found it to be refreshing, encouraging, and uplifting for my business and my family to begin living life with margins.  Capping work hours when I can.  Saying no to good opportunities.  Not spending 100{16e476496f5f3a73cb19f20a476d08f8bca71b0bf9338242f1d2bf6ed337f382} of my tank in one place leading another life area to be neglected.  In fact, living with margin has brought just as much adventure than living life on the edge- without the risk of losing it all.

What margins could be helpful to your life?  Your relationships?  Your business?