The work life balance when you live in Maine. For me, each new day is an amazing opportunity to try something new.
Work. Life. Balance. To meet and learn from folks both local and far far from my home town Maine zip code surroundings. I believe being raised on a Maine farm with three older brothers in a tight working family created a positive foundation to build on day by day. The challenges of dealing with the unpredictable weather, precarious agriculture produce markets and trained to be efficient in time and money management early on has serve me well through out life.
Wikipedia defines work-life balance as the “lack of opposition between work and other life roles”.
It is the state of equilibrium in which demands of personal, professional and family life are equal.” Balancing work and life outside your job. I believe living in Maine has so so many advantages when walking that life tight rope. To have it all, to do it your way, to smell lots of roses along the way is anyone’s hope and desire right?
But how to easy does it balance your work life balance and pursuits living in Maine?
Knowing what is important to you, knowing how you tick. Making time for what seasoning needs to be in your life to enhance and enrich it. Maine to me is the perfect back drop to study and tweak what truly is needed for harmony and balance in the work life competition for how you chose to use your time. All this space, unspoiled pure and natural outdoor beauty. Maine. It’s not like this many other place. Maine is really like the marketing slogan says, “the way life should be”.
Money. Cash in your pocket, tucked away in a bank account or invested around you in the Maine community.
You need far less to keep your head above water in Maine. Housing is way cheaper. You don’t need to sell a duplicate organ or cut off an arm or leg to buy a house in Maine. Carrying one or more mortgages for long is not the local norm. Mainers are brought up to expect hardships, set backs and bumps in the road. Experience with tough situations is what sharpens your skills and level of deep down inside gratitude. Work life balance living in Maine.
They say seventy five to ninety percent of visits to the doctor are related to stress according to national medical statistics.
Problems with depression and stinking thinking. The work life balance when you live in Maine, anywhere. Stress causes everything from headaches to back pain to the inability to function properly in life’s simplest tasks. Poor coping skills can cause added stress. Expectations beyond what they should immediately be is a mental load that robs a person from a feeling of peace and contentment. Chasing the financial objectives to fuel the retail therapy for temporary happiness won’t work in the long run.
Debt is a cancer too. Better money management should not have to come from a Dave Ramsey course charged on your credit card in ongoing installments.
You should see the how to run your household finances the right way from your parents and share the same financial skills with your youngsters around the meal time table conversations. In talks from spending more time with family and less time working a zillion hours a week to keep your head above water and making ends meet. The mission is not just to exist and live by the seat of your pants without a plan or practicing procrastination. But to squeeze out the natural juices to enjoy all that life can offer with the right perspective and expecting not everything is going to always run smoothly.
Mainers keep it simple, have their heads screwed on straight. Their kids work, do chores, learn early on how to manage money and what impulse control is all about to save for rainy days. Something they really want and can buy themselves with their own money if the price is right. If money they earn is not wasted on nickel and dime endeavors only. Saving needs to start early to become a life long habit of living below your means for the nest egg for retirement, for a rainy day.
My Dad’s University of Maine at Orono college graduation commencement speaker told the crowd sitting in the audience waiting for the rolled up diplomas to go forth and make a difference.
Be a spark, add to your surroundings and be an asset to yourself, family, local community. But in the wise words of advice to apply to their life, he sincerely shared that it was his hope that each and every new college graduate “knew adversity early on in life”. So they could apply what was learned from lessons made from mistakes early on to benefit and shape their life for the better as it progressed.
Around Maine, streamed cyber and safely distanced graduation ceremonies are one by one happening this week across Vacationland. Despite COVID19 adjustments to the norm routine in small town Maine living, creative work arounds to do the job at hand are underway. Making the most of what life throws at you is a test of not just your resiliency to survive and persevere. But it is the mental exercise that boosts your sense of appreciation, patience and helps you stay centered. To take stock along the way of what is really important to you and others you share your life. We all strive to live in different degrees off the land. For farm to table food locally sourced. For recreation and exercise and healthy perspective to remind us what is important, what is not worth the time to purse that is shallow or artificial or not lasting.
When you live in Maine, the four season outdoor recreation is always ready and waiting.
You can mix business with pleasure and keep things balanced. We have Nature in our backyards, not hours of driving or miles away. Hopping on the bike for an early morning ride or strapping on your boards for some aerobic exercise to clear your head. Nothing is stopping us from heading out the door where we all spend most of our time through out the year. Dressing a little different to adjust to temperatures and weather patterns all taken in stride but we are not going to deprive ourselves from fresh air, all the rich scenery that involves water, wildlife, no crowds of people.
Social distancing was already the norm when the population is small and sparsely spread over a state as vast and unspoiled at Maine.
We like our own company, need time alone to think and process. Parked on a rock terrain on say Cadillac Mountain gawking out and detaching from your day to day cares, joys, woes is the all natural medication to apply to ourselves. When you already live in Maine, you have it made for safe and drop dead gorgeous surroundings. We have plenty of practice being one on one or alone and don’t fight it. Those times to reflect and process without interruptions or distractions are important vitamins to help the work life balance.
Money is not so important living in rural Maine.
The right perspective and don’t take yourself so serious humble attitude works best in small communities around Maine. The can do spirit to dig in and learn how on your own or networking with others that barter back and forth in the exchange of goods and services. Small town Maine life is more connected. All the individuals in the small community social fabric are needed to rise and fall like the boats in the harbor lifted by the tide.
So work life balance living in Maine.
If what you do for work is fun, if there is sincere enjoyment from a labor of love well done. That’s what builds joy and gratitude. Helps the unpleasant developments roll off and not cause such a negative reaction. I believe Mainers are highly enthused and don’t get discouraged as easily as those feeling helpless and lost in the sea of faces along a crowded city street. We are more hands on, in control holding the reins to our own destinies.
Binge eating, smoking, over drinking self medication only causes insecurity, exhaustion and difficulty concentrating and we have too much we want to accomplish to waste time on those endeavors. The satisfaction from our work and not the hours poured into it is the key to work life balance with family care giving and relationship maintenance. Work takes less effort when you are excited to get up and hop out of bed to begin again.
If you are not in a career that more often than not gives you a sense of purpose and satisfaction, plan your exit.
At the right time, juggling all the obligations surrounding you and people depending on you to enter in a new life phase. Don’t complain, do not blame or sit on your hands. And ask the person you stare back at brushing your teeth and combing your hair in the morning mirror one question. What’s wrong, what’s right and if anything needs adjustment you have control over, what are you gonna do about it? What are the options and best move ahead of you? Here my piece of Maine life story change of careers.
Empowerment comes I think from being more personally involved in your life.
Hands on and less hired out. You get your hands dirty lifting the hood and tinkering. Not relying so much on others to engineer your life. More skills developed early on in life increases your confidence, avoids delays, saves money and creates satisfaction. Teach your kids life skills and reinforce them in yourself is not a bad ideal to stay sharp and current. Life is not sour, not worthless or hopeless unless you thrown your hands in the air and give up. Feeling good about yourself means get moving, become involved and help others who in turn offer their assistance.
Summer is underway in Maine.
People are opening up camps. Many out of staters have been using their second vacation homes in Maine as their new outpost. Working remotely and telecommuting to leave the packed like sardines city apartments or households. Trading it in for simple Maine living. Getting out on the water, hitting the recreational trails, planting gardens, puttering around our homes and involved in community affairs. Working from home, educating our kids under the same roof as school vacation during COVID19 rolls on for locals too.
Glad to live in Maine where work balance is easier even with the coronovirus impact on daily life in Vacationland.
Our work defines us and for those out of work, you can only do so many job jar household projects repainting and repairing. But as the state opens up and health safety procedures with the face mask, gloves, booties too as I list and sell Maine real estate, every day is a reminder. From folks outside Maine who are not so fortunate and lacking the simple options living here not there offers.
Here’s a couple videos of new properties in Maine for sale to show you what I do in my day job.
Maybe you are looking for a lakefront property in Maine for summer living, even more. Pick a pair of ME waterfront listings.
Promoting Maine to others helps reinforce my own glad to live here more than ever convictions.
Work life balance when you live in Maine. Ever thought of relocating to achieve that ebb and flow harmony? With two grandchildren, healthy family around me and a wonderful partner, good health, living in Maine. I know how lucky I am and consider that I have it made. Stay safe, take care and thank you for following our Me In Maine blog post. Good luck keeping your work life in balance in check during COVID19 and other juggling balls your keep in the air.