It is said that everything has its season; this is certainly evident when owning a business & raising a family.  And in balancing these 2 elements sometimes self-care takes the back burner, sometimes personal relationships do, & sometimes business {i.e. ma/pa-ternity leave, vacation, illness, etc.} does. 

Whatever season life has you in, finding balance or at least satisfaction in each of these areas is an experiment.

And as Kevin Wadle, along with many other business owners, would attest, it’s frequently pure naivety & a belief that something can be achieved or accomplished that gets small business owners to leap & trust that a net will appear.

Kevin is a local business owner & Adamantine® Yoga practitioner who plays, and always has played, an active role in raising his 3 kids.  The topic of balancing family and career often falls short of recognizing that there are dads who also find great importance in making the family side of the scale a priority.

When both spouses or partners have chosen to invest in nourishing their inner light by seeking work outside the home, the priority becomes doing whatever needs to be done in order to keep moving forward. 

This is most often made easier when both parents contribute to the intentions or goals of the household. Something Kevin quickly became accustomed to as a young dad, new business owner and spouse of someone headed back to school full time. 

Extended family play a crucial role as a support system because they live near, but that doesn’t stop Kevin from ensuring he is always present for his children when he can be.  For him family comes first and compromises are a must when juggling many schedules.  Although he’s fully aware that things don’t always work out as planned and you don’t win every time.  Life is going to have its disappointments.

He & his wife have instilled this in their children as they have grown into young adults by being okay with saying “no” to them at times.  This has indeed given his kids all reason to be grateful for the patience & discipline they have learned over the years.

Putting off his own satisfaction for either his business or family is ultimately what has helped create more health, harmony & happiness in Kevin’s life. 

When he sets his efforts on focusing on a long term goal and mastering the process of getting to that goal through prioritizing, he has learned the desired results will eventually follow.  He credits his ability to look at the big picture and to learn to be completely honest with himself, becoming aware of things as they truly are, to helping him figure out these priorities. 

Kevin shared an insight that has helped him along the way in this process.

The things that matter in life and things that can’t be controlled in life overlap, and the small area in which these things overlap is where your energy should be focused. 

By adopting this thought process, it is much easier to delegate to those who have strengths in areas you do not.  And by doing so, you ultimately begin to support both the local & global community by using the services of others and freeing yourself up to spend time on what is going to make the biggest impact in your well-being.

Embracing the passions of each individual within a household calls for adaptability.  And that adaptability comes from learning to balance all the components that are involved with playing an active role & supporting each person in their endeavors toward whatever interests them. 

And from someone who is now down to having only 1 child living at home, the payoff for the time invested in all the seasons of parenting & owning a business is well worth it for the relationships he now has with each of his children and the growth his business has seen since he first purchased it nearly 20 years ago.

Read Kevin’s story of how he came to Adamantine® Yoga.

Schedule your FREE WEEK of class at Cairn Yoga & Wellness Studio to experience Adamantine® Yoga in Knoxville, Iowa.