10 Tips for Achieving a Healthier Work-Life Balance
It is Difficult, but not Impossible
1. Find your own balance. - There IS no perfect balance when it comes to motherhood, career & marriage. It's up to you to prioritize, make adjustments and decide what you are and are not prepared to do. Be willing to re-negotiate your work duties, as well as your parenting duties. They WILL change over time.
2. Choose "good enough" over "perfect." - All the pressure that women today put on themselves today to be the perfect mother, the perfect worker, and the perfect wife (with the perfect physique!), takes the joy out of motherhood and saps us of energy. When something needs to be done, ask yourself: is it important that the job is just done, or done perfectly? 9 out of 10 times, the answer will be "just done."
3. Don't be a martyr. - "I've got so much to do." "I've got to do everything round here." Do these sentences ring a bell? Ask for help and let other people take the weight off your shoulders. And learn to say NO firmly and often.
4. Draw a line between home and work. - This is easier said than done in today's world, when we carry our work around with us on our Blackberries, iPhones and other portable devices. Keep your mind focused on the fact that this is the end of that activity, workday or tasks at home.
5. Put on your oxygen mask first. - Moms, that means you need to take care of yourself before you can take care of others including your kids, your husband, your aging parents. Take time out for YOU.
6. Say NO to mommy guilt. - Take the "S" word SHOULD out of your vocabulary. When other people tell you that you SHOULD be making your own organic baby food, or that you SHOULDN'T be letting your kids watch TV ever, or that you SHOULD breastfeed your baby for a full year, or that you SHOULD go back to work because you owe it to yourself and the Women's Movement and it's a safety net for the future, just let it go. Do what works for you. Don't internalize all the SHOULDs that fill your life.
7. Remember, to compare is to despair. - You may think your neighbor has got it all, but take my word for it, she doesn't! We all face our own struggles as mothers, wives and workers.
8. Just. Slow. Down. - A friend of mine told me that when her kids were little, she would repeat to herself the mantra: "the days are long, but the years are short." Sometimes, it feels like you are tending to so many important tasks at the very same moment.
9. Redefine "Success" - Women today are admitting that the "do it all" mantra of the 70s and 80s is making them feel overwhelmed, anxious and depressed. We need to re-define what it means to be a success today a definition that doesn't include the words superwoman, supermom, or doing it all.
10. Find your passion...and follow it! - One of the keys to being happy as a mother, worker and wife is to find a vocation or hobby that will bring joy to your life.
Read the full article at: http://www.healthywomen.org/content/blog-entry/10-tips-achieving-healthier-work-life-balance
Patty Block, President and Founder of The Block Group, established her company to advocate for women-owned businesses, helping them position their companies for strategic growth. Charting the course for impactful, sustainable, profitable businesses, the beacon is control: of your strategic direction, your money, your time, your staffing, and your ability to bring in business. The Block Group brings together the people, resources and ideas that build results.
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