The Burner In The Perception of Lifestyles

Hi Friends,

Here I come with another open mind that deals with work-life balancing. It is important we understand the concept of balancing in relation to what I tag Stove Burners Theory. Firstly, let's look at the stove burner theory.

Illustration

A Man has a gas cooker with four face burner. He filled up the 40kg gas cylinder and everytime the cooker is in use, he makes use of the four faces at the same time which make its gas inside the cylinder finish in no time. He challenged the supplier that filled up the gas, my 40kg gas is not always full. He forgets one thing which I will explain as we proceed on this important topic. Welcome to my world of reality

_{Burners Edited by samest}

---

The presentation of the stove burner mentioned above is in relation to four important aspects of our lives which are;

• Family
• Friends
• Health
• Work

This four entities mentioned represent one major quadrant of our life and I will be looking at them as them one after the other.

Four Burners Theory: The theory state that, to be successful in life, it is important to cut off one of your burners. To be successful in actual fact you have to cut off two. Are you shocked?

Let me show you the three views of four burners.

When I was looking at the four burner theory and I wanted to react to it, I was trying to look at a way to bypass it. So I asked, how is it possible to keep all the four burners running and succeed?

Look at this four burner again, can I in actual sense combine two burners (Family and Friends) in one category? I think if I combine health and work it might work? There are some saying about our health I overheard, sitting all day is unhealthy so they said. Okay? Can I get a standing desk? Hey, what are you thinking? Lol, maybe you are thinking you will be okay/healthy if you get yourself a standing desk but I tell you is like believing you are a rebel, I tell you is like you just ignored one important thing like someone that ignored the fasten seatbelt sign on an airplane.

There is some salient fact that is difficult to believe maybe because of the part of the world, I came from but this is a reality of life. Lifes is filled with tradeoffs and until you discover those tradeoffs your excellence in the aspect of your work and in your martial lives is not guaranteed. If you are looking for success in your work and also in marriage, check well friends and something your work will have to suffer. Oh yes, from the list of burners I mentioned, as a person that looks forward to excellence in all aspect you can decide to divide your time equally, but I tell you, to reach your full potential in any given areas is not possible. One must suffer.

Here is the thing,

We have the mind of choice. You can determine to live a life that is unbalanced and bring out the best of you in a certain area, again, you can try to live a balanced life, and never maximizes your potential in given burners (four quadrants).

Don’t be confused, I have a solution for you. The problems we are facing in life has different ways of approach that will settle them all. I would not say I have the best solution but I will present to you a little but the best way to handle work-life balance problems. Let me take you on a ride…

There are three ways I will mention here;

• Why Not Outsource The Burners?

Outsourcing is an experience I had in my facility management. I came to this understanding when you outsource a particular area in facility management you are relieved of a headache yet you will receive the report and sanction those you outsource those section too if they are not performing. Maybe we don’t know that we do outsource some aspect of our lives at all time. When you go to an eatery to buy food, what you have done is, you source out the part of you not to cook. Some of us that make use of dry cleaners to same our time on laundry is part of outsourcing. There are much outsourcing we do know and unknowingly. When you outsource small portions of your life it creates time-saving which you can make use of elsewhere. So, Friends lets apply this to our discussion, and free your time to focus on the other three burners?

Let me pick Work. 90% believe the hottest burner on their stove is work. They spend most time of their life on their job and I will say that the last burner to get turned off is Work. This theory focus on business owners and entrepreneurs, they mostly outsource the wok burner. Do you want to ask how? What they do is to hire people that will work for them and relieve themselves from every a work headache.

_{Outsourcing Edited by samest}

---

I read about Sam carpenter’s story, he built business systems that work for him to the point of allowing him to work for just 2hours per week. The guy outsourced himself from the whole day work of the business and still reaping the financial benefits.

See from the Parenting aspect;

From the study, parents that do work outsource their family burner by dropping their children off at daycare. You as a parent may see this as unfair but you will agree with me on this point that you are paying someone else to keep the burner running while you use your time to focus on your job.

What is the advantage of outsourcing? Time-saving is a major advantage. Outsourcing a part of you keep the burner running without you spending your time on it. The most dangerous thing about outsourcing is when you are out of the equation the business will die. Think about this… Most parents love to spend time with their children than taking them to daycare, even an artist that see nothing to create on each day would feel bored. Yes, outsourcing keeps the burner continuously burning but does it run in a meaningful way?

Outsourcing keeps the burner running, but is it running in a meaningful way?

Look at the second best way if you will buy the idea;

• Why not Embrace Constraints?

If you look at the four burners again, shining of light on your untapped potential is one of the major frustrating parts. We do say to ourselves, I wish I had more time, making more money each day will be my next target. See my friend, why wishing? Wishing can do nothing to your success until you shift your focus away from wishing for more time and use/maximize the one you have. Friends, embrace your limitation.

Look at this assumption:

A man question himself, how can I make the most money possible if I can only work from 8 AM to 4 PM? Another one says, I am a writer and I have just 20 minutes each day, how do I finish my book as quickly as possible?

See, this is fantastic reasoning, and this on an actual fact pull your focus toward something positive. I will say get the most out of what you have available than worrying about never having enough time. When you have well-designed limitations it can improve your performance.

Here is the disadvantage;

When you embrace constraints it simply means you believe and accepts it that you are operating at the very less than your full potential. Friends, work smarter and not harder. Yes, this notion is not easy to avoid but you just have to do. When you try all you could to invest time in your health or career, you would likely see improvement in this area mentioned.

Lastly,

Why Not Look At The Seasons Of Life?

have you considered a way to break your life into the season? Can you look at a particular area and strategize ways to break that area into seasons instead of looking for perfect work-life balance at all times.

Can you consider this? A guy or a lady in his or her 20s with no children can easily get to the gym and chase career ambitions. Here the health and work burners are on full blast. look at this few years later, the health burner of going to the gym might drop cause family might have started and slowly the health burner dips down to a slow simmer and you agree the most attention will be family which will get more gas to fire.

I will say to you at this junction, you don't have to give up your dreams forever, but in real sense life rarely allows you to keep all the four burners (Family, friends, health, and work) at once. I’m sensing you need to let go something for this season to gain your full potential on the important thing. See, you can only do this in a lifetime, but I tell you it is not at the same damn time.

It is for a season, the commitment of your goal with everything you have. Nathan Barry

I will end this on a notion that says, which burners have you cut off? I have this understanding that man doesn't like hearing, You can’t have it all but I will you agree with that everybody has constraints on their time and energy. Note this, every choice you made has a cost. I ask you again, which burners have you cut off?

Thank you for reading.

Yours Sincerely,

Engr. Samest