In Her Own Words: A CRB Designee Knows Life is More than Work

By Abigail Jennings, CRB, Real Estate Business Magazine, October/November 2007

Finding Balance

When my father, James Jennings, was diagnosed with cancer in 1998 and subsequently passed away in 1999 at the age of 53, I took the events as a direct message to treat my life as a gift, to make the most of each day and to really live by the motto "work to live" — rather than "live to work." I realized that I had to maintain balance in my life in order to keep my sanity and to create a sense of fulfillment.

For business owners, it's hard to know when to draw the line sometimes. When we fall into the trap of putting our entire hearts and souls into our companies, we often discover that no heart and soul is left to share with other important aspects of our lives. By having a balance between work and non-work, the balanced fulfillment can help keep work more satisfying and vice versa. When you put too much energy into your work life, your non-work life will suffer; if you focus too much on your non-work life, then your work is going to suffer.