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EPISODE 11 of the Managing Happiness Show!

I’m very excited that my fellow podcast host Peter Awad is my next guest on the show! He is the Godfather of the entrepreneurial work-life balance and hosts the Slow Hustle Podcast. Peter is a serial entrepreneur and a happy dad of 4 children. In this episode, he will share how incorporating slowness into your personal and professional life can boost your happiness and creativity.

About Peter Awad

When he is not traveling the country with his wife Melissa and 4 kids, Peter is challenging what it means to raise a family in the connected economy.

Founder and Host of the Slow Hustle Podcast, he interviews founders to dissect how they are managing the responsibility of scaling a business while also incorporating slowness into their business and personal lives.

He is also the Co-Founder of a mission-based snack food company, Mission Meats and the Founder of an eCommerce automotive parts business, Import Auto Performance.

Vision and mission

In their personal and professional lives, Peter and his wife are driven by their need for autonomy. They value highly the freedom to spend enough time with their family and do the things they love. The more adventures, fun times and challenges the family goes through, the more united it becomes.

I don’t want to live a life of regret where 20 years from now I look back and realize I was very good at working and grinding but not really great at the slowness part.

Being constantly rushed, hurried and frazzled shouldn’t be the default way of living. That’s why Peter refers to his emotional and personal development as “the slowness part” of life.

His business Mission meats has a clear mission statement and everyone in the company works up to it.

Meat snacks that give back.

In order to support their mission, every year they spend at least 10% of their profit supporting non-profit organizations that make a real impact in the world.

Incorporating slowness in life

Different people interpret the concept of “slowness in life” in different ways. For Peter, it all comes to giving yourself time and space to think and clear your mind from the overwhelming thoughts.

It’s having the margin and the space to stop and to think. Spend time the way you want to spend time. Work on the things you want to work on with the people that you want work with.

Peter believes that boredom is essential for creativity and epiphany comes when you feel relaxed. However, this isn’t easy nowadays when we are flooded with so much information and distractions.

Remind yourself that you are a human being versus this robot that is made to punch keys on the keyboard and put dollars in the bank account.

Some people clear their minds by practicing extreme sports or yoga. Peter does it by touring the US in his RV with his family.

For him, the biggest challenge isn’t to find a relaxing activity, but to make the time for it to happen. That’s why he blocks time slots in his calendar for all the things he values.

Work-life balance tips and tricks

Peter’s secret for work-life balance is to have the discipline to create space for different activities. He likes to be present in the moment and pays attention to the life he is living.

When on the road, Peter plans for his work hours and stays focused until he gets the job done. He prioritizes the tasks that will make him feel more satisfied at the end of the day.

He recommends a very useful exercise to everyone who wants to become more self-aware. List all the things which are amazing about your life. Do the same with all the things that bring you stress and anxiety. Then, start asking yourself why is that.

The first answer is never the most interesting one. However, if you keep asking yourself “why” like children do, you will gradually reveal the roots of your happiness and worries and will be able to tackle them.

Peel back the onion. (…) Then do something about it.

Last but not least, Peter believes that we become what we think about most of the time. We have full control of our thoughts and should use it to think positively rather than falling in self-pity and despair.

Interested in Peter Awad’s work-life integration techniques? Listen to the podcast and tell me what you think about it in the comments section.

If you are working for a cause that brings positive change to the world, join Peter’s initiative What’s Your Mission. Learn more: https://missionmeats.co/pages/whats-your-mission