Stress-Extending My Margin to Avoid Burnout (Sandra Auer)

Hi, I’m Scott Hollinger and I’d like to welcome you to another edition of MemCare by Radio.  Being involved in full-time in ministry can be stressful and exhausting even when you love your work.  I know.  I’ve been in that position.  Several years ago I was involved in a project that took all of my energy and the energy of our team.  I think I can honestly say that most of us loved the work and we could see the results but it still took a toll on us emotionally and physically.  The resulting burnout that some of us suffered from took years to recover from.  That’s why the conversation we’re going to listen in on today is so important.

We’re talking with Sandra Auer, of Campus Crusade for Christ, about how to take a break.  Sandra likes to call it ‘extending your margin’ with margin referring to the time you have to refresh and recharge your soul, mind and body so you can attack the next day of work and ministry.  My interview with Sandra was over the internet and it’s awesome that we have this technology that will allow us to talk on a regular basis with Sandra even though we’re not even in the same part of the world together.

I started our conversation by asking Sandra to explain what she meant by ‘margin’.

Margin, in the way I think of it, could include most anything that’s legit, that is not harmful to you and that actually boosts energy and gives you a sense of well-being.  It might be all sorts of different things but it’s generally something that you enjoy doing and you get some sort of personal payback from it.

Okay, so I guess when I heard you saying it gives you energy, I was thinking about an energy drink or food but you’re also talking about an activity, I guess, or something like that.

One thing came to mind as I was thinking about this topic this morning.  I walked a mile carrying 2-pound weights and I listened to Nicole Mullin sing about Jesus in my ears.  That was something that when I’m sitting in my chair I might think of as costing me energy but actually it adds to my energy and even though it was dark outside I got a lot of boost from just striding and experiencing a little bit of the outdoors early in the morning.  It gave me some energy to go through the day with.  I think of that as margin, even though I’m not usually a physical person.  I don’t particularly like exercising but that kind of exercise is good for me.  It helps me and it actually boosts my energy.

As you know, I’m a very physical person and I love to work out.  That’s one of those things that I do that does give me energy.  I would imagine, though, Sandra, that there are people who are listening right now who are saying, ‘yes, but I don’t like to exercise at all and maybe it’s dangerous for me to go walking at night’, depending on where they live, so what are some other ways that you would consider that a person could utilize to gain margin?  What are some activities?

It’s a long list.  People do things like write poetry or read novels.  They write letters.  They do physical things like you described but they may do some of those inside their house.  Some people have an exercise routine that they’ll do in their living room with a videotape.  They might go fishing on the weekend or spend time with their children.  There are things that we do sometimes with other people that, depending on how we’re put together, actually boost our energy.  Does that help?

Yes, I think it does.  It helps me, anyway, and so then I think about the person who says, ‘Well, wait a second.  Sandra and Scott – I don’t have time for margin’.  How do you reply to the person who thinks that they just cannot take the time?

I think we all feel that at some level, particularly those of us that are doing work that we really believe in and where our goals aren’t always achievable or easily measured.  That’s a really frequent comment and yet if we don’t take time for margin, we tend to have interpersonal problems or we lack energy.  We want to sleep all the time or we just don’t want to get up in the morning.  We don’t want to go out of our house because we don’t have the kind of health or balance that would energize us for doing real work, even for relational work.  I think that’s a typical comment and yet people who do come to understand what margin means or want to improve balance in their lives, as we do indulge, if you will, in those behaviours or activities that are a boost for us, we find that we do have more energy for the work and our relationships that are part of what we do that counts to other people.

Well here’s an idea that I wondered about.  That was – if the team leader were to maybe say to the group ‘hey, we’re going to go do this’ …  I don’t know what it is, maybe just spend an afternoon at the beach if they live close to a beach, go hiking, or maybe they live close to a bowling alley…I mean, name the activity and do something like that together as a team.  Could that be a positive type of influence as well?

Absolutely.  For a lot of people on that team that may really give them a boost.  It’s likely to have a good effect on the team overall even if there are some people on the team for whom bowling isn’t their deal.  There will be some who would prefer the hike, but yes those sorts of activities are very good for teams and they say to team members – we’re about more than just what we do that we count in the office.  It helps them do that work in the office, probably more in step with one another, because they know one another in a different way.  They know one another better as a result of doing other things together.  My experience in addressing or talking about this topic with people from various parts of the world is that we all have similar things that we do to create margin in our lives.  Our families are important, life outside is important…  One thing I did think of that is quite culturally specific that relates to margin is tea time.  We worked in Kenya for many years and I have many British friends as well.  In Kenya, particularly, and in England and probably lots of other places, in the afternoon it’s very common to break for tea.  If you drop by your friend’s house at a certain time of the afternoon you’re guaranteed not just to get a cup of tea but to have it in a very relational way.  You might even get a little piece of something sweet, but that’s not what it’s about.  It’s about sitting down and just talking about things other than work and connecting.  That’s such a feeding time.  It really does create margin in the day.

That brings back some real memories for me, Sandra, because I think that there are some cultures, some people groups, who might have a problem with that idea and yet it seems to me that that’s a great way to get to know your fellow workers and to, as you said, gain margin.  Learn new ways to gain margin.

I would expect in most places in the world that there are things like that.  If a person has their antenna up and is paying attention and is connected to the local culture they’re likely to discover things like that that are certainly within the realm of possibility for westerners and might provide a kind of margin that’s different than they’ve experienced up to that time.

I remember one place where I worked where one of our fellow workers was a man from Venezuela and he would go down to a Cuban restaurant every day and he would bring back a cup of Cuban coffee, which is this very thick, syrupy, very sweet coffee.  It is very good, heavy on the caffeine, but there were about 5 of us that loved it.  We sat down for 15 minutes and we didn’t talk about work.  We talked about everything else and enjoyed our Cuban coffee.  We then went back to work and I don’t know if it’s because if we had that time together or because we were infused by caffeine but the rest of the afternoon seemed to fly right by.

That’s a great story, Scott.  I really like that not only because I love coffee myself, but because I really believe in what you’re saying.  I think it gives us a different view of one another when we take time out from our goals, our specified goals, just to be with one another as humans.

I’d like to thank Sandra Auer for being with us today and sharing with us on how to seek and gain margin in our lives so we’re renewed and refreshed and able to go back out to do the work God has called us to do.