If you need help to balance it all, ask another mom how she does it. It is great to ask a mom who you think has her balance game down pat to help you figure it out.
It is possible to achieve work-life balance and if you need help to get it done, ask another mom. Working moms often walk a fine line like a tightrope. It is not always easy to balance the demands of home and work. After all, there are only 24 hours in each day, and an 8-hour workday, the need to sleep for 8 hours per night, and a desire to spend quantity, not just quality time with family make balancing it all very hard to do.
When you need help getting it all in balance, reach out and ask for advice.
We all have a friend who appears to have the balancing act on lockdown. These are women with great jobs, handsome husbands, well-behaved intelligent children, and actual social lives. Some people look at those women with hate or envy. The haters whisper that the balance is all an illusion. The haters are sure that behind closed doors, those who look like they have it all are actually miserable, depressed control freaks on the brink of suicide. I see things differently.
I see that woman as someone who has something to teach me. I see a woman who has an idea of what it means to work smart instead of just working hard. If that woman can tell me how to get my kids to behave in the market and not drive me crazy while I shop, I want to learn. If she can tell me how to work all day and organize my life so that I can spend time with my husband and kids each day without feeling the need to rush off to do something else, I am all ears. If that woman wins the gold prize and is able to get more than four hours of sleep each night, I am willing to buy her a cup of coffee to learn some lessons from her.
Take a moment now and look at your life. Is there an area where you need to improve? Are you having trouble keeping work at work and home at home? Do you need to find a way to keep working during work hours and get all your home stuff done while you are at home instead of at the office? Look around your network to see if there is a mom in your circle who seems to have worked it out. Ask her to share her secret. Are you going crazy trying to help your children get their homework done and get dinner on the table at a decent time? Look at the moms around you. One of them has this down pat. Ask her to share her method for getting it done and try it at your house.
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Even if behind the scenes, that mom you are asking for help is hanging on by a thread and she is barely making it. It will make her feel good to hear you ask her for help. It will be a compliment because it will make her feel as if her efforts are working and may give her a needed ego boost. After all, who doesn’t need a compliment from time to time? One of the most important things to remember about living life on the planet earth is that in many ways, it is a team sport. Many of the tasks that are involved with being a working woman are not solo activities.
For example, at work, there are co-workers people who help to get done the work that needs to be done. Even if you are a sole practitioner or a solo entrepreneur you can create a team with groups on social media. Websites like LinkedIn and Facebook are full of groups that enable entrepreneurs to work together, network, and share the load. Facebook is also a great place to find support groups for working moms who need help with tasks at home. When it comes to your home, remember you do not have to do it all alone. A family is a team. Get your spouse, children, and others living in your home to help with duties.
At work and home always remember that in most cases, it doesn’t have to be perfect to be profitable.
One of the main reasons that women find it hard to balance work and home is that they feel everything must be perfect. There is a feeling that you must be the best employee, boss, entrepreneur, and freelancer if you are going to be in the workplace. At the same time, those addicted to perfection feel that everything at home must be perfect and in order. In many cases, that meant that the woman felt a need to do everything herself because after all, no one could do what she was required to do better than she herself. This is a dangerous mindset. Often it leads to stress, aggravation, and resentment. After all, those at work are co-workers which means they should be sharing the work. At home, resentment builds when a woman who thinks she must do it all realizes that her family is not helping her do anything that needs to be done.
To read more about work/life balance, check out the following:
Work Life Balance – Learn New Tricks – It is fantastic to know there is always something new to learn in the work-life balance battle. Click here to read more.
or
Avoid Excess and Learn to Balance Work and Home – I am a woman who works at home and know it is very easy to slip into working during all my waking hours. Click here to read more.
Also, check out our Confidence Tip of the Day YouTube channel for hundreds of videos on creating the confidence you need to succeed.
Whether at work or at home, the actions of a woman bent on doing everything perfectly herself are often overlooked or taken for granted. Letting go of the need to be perfect and getting help from those around you will relieve stress and lessen aggravation. In addition, when you let your teammates actually step up and help with work, they begin to understand the work you do and may respect it more than they did when you did everything for them.
When trying to balance things at work and home, remember that sometimes those to whom you delegate will not do the job as well as you do. Don’t let that upset you. Keep in mind that a thing doesn’t have to be perfect to be profitable. In other words, on many occasions, a thing doesn’t have to be perfect, a thing being done good enough is often literally good enough. At work, it may take a teammate two hours to get done what you can get done in one hour. As long as any necessary deadlines are met, it is okay, let that teammate handle them matter and accept that it is good enough. At home, your husband may not handle things with the children the same way that you do. That is okay, it really is. Let go of the extreme desire to control everything and let your teammates at home help you balance and get things done.
[Tweet ” At work and at home, remember it doesn’t have to be perfect to be profitable.”]
In the end, remember that in life, it often takes a village to get things done. Don’t be shy about letting a mother in your circle give you advice on how to get things balanced at work and at home and every place in between. So, the question for you on this fantastic day is, what mothers or teammates can you ask for help to balance it all?
