What’s the right balance between work and non-work time? The traditional 9-5 has slowly disappeared with the emails and zoom and texting going far beyond traditional business hours. We asked members of our community to share with us how they think about work-life balance.

Michael Silva | Entrepreneur

Work life balance is extremely important to me. As a child growing up, my father worked a ton of hours, anywhere from 80 – 100 hours a week. He was more of the blue collar type than the white collar professional and he wanted to provide a lifestyle for his family that was on par to the families that lived in our neighborhood and the only way to achieve that was to work a ton of hours. As a kid growing up, I didn’t fully understand why Dad wasn’t at my little league game or why he wasn’t home for dinner. Read more>>

Eric Hadley | CEO & Founder of Got Your Six Coffee Co

If you would have asked me this question 10 years ago the answer would have been completely different from what I am about to share now and there have been a series of events that have lead me on the journey to where I am now. Years ago it was all about work, success, travel and a sense of purpose or a duty to serve. Years ago it was about operations and keeping the system running if you will because it served a greater purpose with supporting armed forces afloat. Read more>>

Franesca Makana | Teacher and Travel Blogger

When I first started as a teacher, I brought a lot of work home with me and would answer emails at any time. I stayed late and tried to make everything perfect. However, after the first couple of years, I realized that it was important to have some “me time” in the evenings. Once I started my blog, I had to get even better at balancing in order to have time for everything. Now, I set aside some time to work on blog tasks and also set aside some nights just for fun. Read more>>

Regina Martinez | Mother & Blogger

I’ve worked since I was 17 years old. Having an income has always been extremely important to me as I have always had to help my family financially growing up. I was extremely blessed to have close family help when I had my first born at a young age. This allowed me to continue working a full time job to provide for my child. I was grateful enough to have management be extremely flexible with me, that not only allowed me to make a good portion of my own schedule but also attend every event my child had during school hours. Read more>>

Roo Smith | Adventure Filmmaker & Photographer

My work life balance is more important now than ever before. When I first began my career as an adventure filmmaker I admittedly had a pretty poor balance since I felt like I needed to work as often as I could to bring in opportunities and income. However, that often left me feeling burnt out and overwhelmed – a headspace that didn’t lead to any productive or healthy routines. The more experienced I became in the filmmaking community the more I began to understand how important it is for me to pursue things other than filmmaking. Read more>>

Fritz Boniface | Ranch Foreman/Fly Fishing Guide/Musician

Being someone that has a lot of hobbies and passions, I believe finding a proper work life balance is so important yet so hard to grasp in today’s society. Growing up around my family’s thoroughbred business didn’t allow for much of a personal life, but did give me the opportunity of learning to ride and work with horses (Hi Mom, Hi Dad). Although my life seemed to revolve around the horse industry, it can be very easy to find ways to have fun from within. Jumping fences is what did it for me. Read more>>

Michael Pace | Musician and Engineer

A guitar teacher once told me “limits yield intensity.” During one of our lessons, he was trying to relay the importance of focus and how limiting one’s attention to a single thing can lead to growth. He went on to explain that once a learning curve levels out, a student can take on another curve and continue to grow. While in music, the learning is never truly done, his lesson was a potent response to a younger musician’s desire to “do it all”. There’s nothing wrong with having this desire. However, if we break these three words down, we realize how spreading oneself thin across many tasks gets intense but it might not be the best use of one’s time. Read more>>

Jeremy Evans | Culinary Hero For Hire

This is a question I think about on a daily basis. Before starting my business, Kitchen-Man, I was working 60 or more hours a week in one restaurant day in and day out. Don’t get me wrong, I love cooking and, if I were still single, I’d probably still be on that grind. However, when I first met my wife, she already had a 2 year old daughter and I fell in love with both of them instantly. Long story short, I became a family man practically overnight. Read more>>

Eric Smith | Photographer and Graphic Designer

The concept of work ethic has always been a very strange idea to me. I view all work as a trade in time for a wage or other compensation, and all play or downtime as a trade in time for memories or rejuvenation. When you enter the workplace, you are expected to give 100% of your efforts at all times, regardless of circumstances or influence; given that we all have off days, it is inevitable that every person will occasionally fall short of this expectation, and it proves to be quite unattainable. Read more>>

Keri Cramer | Owner & Lash Artist

Work Life balance and a business owner is always hard. My husband is my biggest supporter/cheerleader. Thankful with him we can tackle business decisions together. He is my on call handy man! Those are for those emergency moments. But for the day to day, I’ve developed my schedule to work with our family life. Finally! It took us probably 12 years to learn what is best for both family and the business. I think my biggest hurdle now is putting the phone down when I am home. Read more>>

Avalon & Ross | Vibrant Earth Seeds

About Us: Vibrant Earth Seeds is a small family farm and seed company in Southwestern Colorado near Cortez. We are passionate in our commitment to grow a diversity of open-pollinated, chemical-free and regionally-adapted seeds including vegetables, legumes, grains, flowers and herbs. Our focus is selecting and breeding drought tolerant, low water needs, short-season adapted & hardy seeds that thrive in the Mountain West and beyond. Read more>>

Stephanie Foster | Ceramic Artist

In the early stages of starting my business I really struggled with work life balance. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve had this tendency to throw myself into projects and work on them with laser focus until I’ve completed them to their fullest extent. And while I’m grateful for the effect this had on cultivating a strong work ethic, I had to realize (yes, the hard way) that this approach to work was not only unsustainable, it was entirely in opposition to the reason I started my business in the first place. Read more>>

Mike Ensley | Professional Counselor

Striking out on your own with an independent practice is a daunting task. In the beginning it’s hard to have good boundaries with work because you’re so focused on the tenuousness of its day-to-day success. But as a therapist I realized that having a balanced relationship with my business is important not only for my personal wellbeing, but I grew to see it as a vital opportunity for modeling healthy living for my clients. Even when it feels difficult to do, I stick to the virtue that my rest is as valuable to my clients as my work. Read more>>