If you are challenged by work life balance, you’re not the only one! Trying to juggle it all creates more stress…the very thing we’re trying to get rid of!
In today’s video, I share the 4 things I’ve learned about juggling the demands.
Work Life Balance or Just Balance?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKEy18oRQNk
Work.
Fun stuff.
Friends.
Prince charming.
And kids.
Now juggle!
My name is Amanda Bentow and today we’re talking about the good ol’ topic of work life balance so stay tuned!
I remember driving across town one day, racing to daycare to pick up my son. I was frustrated because I had already left big projects left undone at work and I knew that I had to get him, get him fed, give him a bath, and get him to bed. I would have just a little bit of time with him and I was just wondering how in the world do people do this? My house was a mess, my husband and I hadn’t had a normal conversation in I don’t know how long, and I felt in adequate as a mom, a wife, a volunteer, an employee, and a boss. And then time for my friends… yeah right.
But I knew there was a better way, I mean tons of people have been doing this before me. So let me tell you about the four things I’ve learned on my hunt for work life balance.
Get Clear About Priorities
First of all, I had to get clear about what was most important to me. Life happens in the seasons and our priorities change too. Before I had kids, I kind of thought it was wimpy when people use their kids as an excuse. But I quickly realized the kids take a lot of time and energy. My priorities had changed and I had to change the way that I was thinking.
Create Healthy Boundaries
Number two since we have to have healthy boundaries. That means I own my stuff and you on your stuff. I spent too much time writing what I thought other people thought I was going to think get in the way of my time at home with my family. In other words, I felt guilty for leaving a meeting at the time it was supposed to end rather than waiting through the extra bonus content that everyone else was going to sit through. But once I really grabbed onto the fact that my priorities have changed and I got to choose, then I was able to leave those meetings and saying no to other things guilt free.
Feed Your Body And Your Soul
Number three: I learned to feed my body and my soul. I changed my reading and my entertainment choices to things that would build me up rather than just waste my time or worse, be a big old negative influence in my life. I had to change up my eating. What I learned was that my stress level and my anxiety or directly tied to the foods I was eating. But I had no idea. I had been leading this stuff – like pasta and cheese and bread – and had no idea that it impacted the way I was feeling. The bottom line is that whatever we put in mixes with what we already have. And then we put that back out into the world. So if you want to put good things in the world you got a put good things in you.
Get Enough Sleep
Number four: we have to make sleep priority and that is every new parent’s biggest challenge. Do you know that [lack of] sleep can actually damage our brains? And we can’t make that up later. When were tired, we have a harder time making decisions and even identifying our positive feelings. And part of our brain that controls fear is on overdrive so we perceive everything as a threat. Get a little testy when you get tired? Me too!
When we are tired and crabby, that just creates more problems and more stress and piles on top of everything else that makes us more crabby and we have a harder time making decisions and it just adds to the overwhelm. It just throws everything out of whack.
Work Life Balance or Just Life Balance?
Look, I don’t think of this as a juggling act between work and personal life. It’s all one big bucket and it’s called life. And that means you get to choose how you spend your time and your energy. If you feel like there’s a piece of your life inside that bucket that just drains you and doesn’t really build you out, and it might be time to consider getting rid of that thing. Unless it’s your kids, you have to keep those.
So start making a plan to unwind from those things during you and exhaust you and leave you totally out of energy and look for new things build you up and add to your sense of purpose. If your current job doesn’t do that for you, it might be time to look for another opportunity. And it doesn’t mean that you failed. It means it’s a big old when because you’ve identified one more thing in the world that you just were not created to do.
If you thought this video was helpful then click on the subscribe button and had to http://freefiveday.com. I’ll let you in on my video coaching program and I’ll give you recipes and grocery list to clean up your mind and encourage your heart.
