[callout]This is a guest post from Brian Mininger. Brian is a business coach, speaker and writer, who helps passionate, but overworked small business owners increase their income and personal productivity so they can make a positive impact and achieve a healthy balance between their work and personal life.  You can connect with Brian on his blog at www.BrianMininger.com, and on Facebook and Twitter. If you want to guest post on my blog, check out my guest post guidelines and submit your post.[/callout]

Have you ever found yourself caught in the middle? Feeling pulled in so many directions and not sure how to meet the demands?

If you are a husband and father who cares about his family and personal life, then sooner or later you will experience the struggle to balance work and family.

Let me tell you a story from my own life.

Years ago when I started my construction company, I had a little bit of a problem. I didn’t have any business background or training. Therefore, I had to learn somehow. One of the things I did, was go and talk to successful business people I knew. I asked them a lot of questions so  I could learn from their experience. In one of those conversations, one man told me unless I worked 60+ hours a week, I would never succeed.

That presented me with a problem. At the time, I had a young family. The twins were about two years old and we had another baby on the way. I can guarantee you Victoria (my wife) was not in agreement with that plan.

So I took a little bit of time and stepped back to consider what I’d been told. When I did, I realized this man had a history of broken marriages and strained family relationships. The path he was proposing to me was not the path I wanted to go down.

I knew there were things in life that were more important to me than business success. So I made a decision to balance business success with personal success. It hasn’t been the easiest journey. There have been times I’ve done well, and there are times I’ve really struggled. As recently as one year ago, I had to make significant changes to my work in order to keep things in balance.

Maybe you have experienced that same struggle. As I talk to small business owners, I find a lot of them find themselves in that same tug-of-war. They started their businesses to provide for their family and give them time flexibility. Instead, the business is overrunning their life.

Here are the 4 secrets to a healthy balance I have learned from my own struggle, and from those who have modeled healthy success for me.

1) Decide

You have to make a decision that you want more out of life than just business success. You have to decide you will strive to balance business success with personal success.

2) Look Deep Inside Your Heart

Many times our lives get out of balance because there is a wound that is driving us. Is it fear of failure? A desire to fulfill some unmet need? Or are you trying to prove wrong the teacher who said you would never amount to anything? Once you identify those triggers, you can move toward freedom in your life.

3) You Can Learn a New Way

The habits and patterns of life that allow us to function in a healthy balance can be learned. You are not stuck in your old patterns. With hard work, you can learn new, healthy ways of functioning.

4) You Can’t Do it Alone

Lone rangers get shot down! You need people around you who will encourage you and hold you accountable. Sometimes all it takes to get a breakthrough is a new set of eyes.

You can do it. It is possible to have both business and personal success. Make 2015 a year of breakthrough and transformation by applying these “secrets” to your life.