How do you do it all? Spoiler alert – you can’t. Even so, I consider myself a supermom, career woman, social media expert, best friend, and home economist extraordinaire. Just not all at the same time. It’s enough to be awesome at one thing, and so-so at the rest, during different stages of our lives.
Mission Impossible: Work Life Balance
If you’re a working Mom (or Dad), you may have guilt about the missed moments with your little ones. Or job related guilt about leaving the office on time when you have a big project coming due. The pressure to keep your house tidy and boss happy, while also attending each and every soccer game is intense.
There’s a lot of pressure to be-it-all. My advice is to stop trying.
I often talk about working extra hours, in order to get out of debt. Additionally, picking up an extra job to earn more income is never a bad idea. That’s why I wanted to take a moment to talk about work life balance.
My personal take on “balancing it all”, is that it’s impossible. This may make it sound as if I’m stressed and overwhelmed. That I need a course on time management. But, that’s not the case. I think any single goal is possible, so long as you’re willing to let a few things slide. STOP trying to be super at everything. Pick one or two things, and go after it.
Mini-Goals for the Win
Take life, or goals, in little bites. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time, right? Decide what you’re going to focus on this year, or month, or week, and FOCUS on it. Throw all your energy into it, so that you can do it to the best of your ability. Realizing, of course, that other areas in your life will likely suffer.
Commit to mini-goals. One thing at a time. This’ll help eliminate stress, worry and anxiety from your life. You ARE awesome at it all – just not all at the same time.
If you’ve decided to focus on paying off your debt, and have taken on an extra job to do so, then WORK. Work so that you can reach your goal as fast as possible. Nobody likes working like a dog. But, we all like the results that it can create. You want to get this period of your life over with quickly. As a result, you can move on to more exciting things.
For example, if you just had a baby, you’ll need to turn off the TV, shut off your phone and FOCUS on your family. Obviously in this case, your job might suffer, as you take time off to spend with your baby.
If you’ve decided to focus on your health, you’ll need to wake up earlier and get outside to RUN at least 3-4 times a week. Again, your family or your career may suffer slightly as you spend more of your time and attention on eating right and taking time to exercise.
Remember, this shouldn’t be forever. It’s a short term sacrifice to hit a goal. Obviously you don’t want to be away from your family for long.
Have a Clear TimeLine For Goals
When we focus for too long on one specific goal, that’s when things truly get out of balance. In order to prevent that from happening, I recommend communicating clearly with your friends and family about your goal, and how long you intend to focus on it.
Let’s use the example of getting out of debt. It’s fairly easy to do the math to figure out how long it’ll take for your to reach your goal. If you have $50,000 in debt, and you’re able to throw $25,000 a year at it, it’ll take you 2 years.
If you’re working long hours, and spending time away from home to reach your debt-free timeline, be sure your spouse is on the same page and understands that this is a short term sacrifice. Discuss why you’re doing this, and spend time dreaming together about all the things you’ll be free to do in the future because of your sacrifice.
Be Sure to Switch Your Focus, Once It’s Time
Once you get out of debt, cut back your hours and spend more time at home. Let the pendulum swing the other way for a little while. This is important! You said you would, so follow through on that, in order to keep balance in your LIFE.
Balance Your Life
There’s an ebb and flow to things. We may not balance it all this year, but overall, throughout the course of our lives, there absolutely should be a balance.
In conclusion, the best we can all do is our BEST. Stop worrying about being perfect in all aspects, and focus on being great at ONE thing, right now. Next month you can set a goal to reorganize all the clothes into cute little categorized piles. This month, it’s okay to shove it all into the drawers while you work on your current goal of working hard to get out of debt. You got this! Now get back to work.
