Finding a balance between life, work, family and other obligations is extremely challenging these days. With electronics at our fingertips – it’s harder and harder to get away from the constant demands, questions and responses that electronics enable us to respond to in a quick manner.
As a life coach who works with women who are striving to be their best as a professional and/or a Mom, the key to their success is staying focused on their priorities. Sounds simple, right? Just focus on what’s important to you…your priorities. However, it’s not as simple as it sounds. Priorities get clouded as we navigate through our busy days. Deadlines, commitments, and to-do list are never ending – pushing what may be most important to us to the bottom of these lists!
Identifying and committing to our priorities is the first step in connecting to a more balanced, less-stressful life. Priorities are just another term for personal values. Knowing what’s most important, our values, defines our priorities which gives us our focus. Values are not morals, they are not principles rather values are who we are. When values are honored there is a sense of internal rightness – and life feels good. When we are not honoring our personal values – our life can feel stressful, unfulfilling and off balance. Priorities, therefore, are our values, our way of being, put to action.
I often tell my clients, “we are not human-doings, we are human-beings.” Our values allow us to focus on who we are and how we want to be. For example, I have a value of integrity. So, my priority is to be full of integrity in anything I do. If I say yes, for example, to volunteering for something I really don’t want to do…I am not being in my full integrity. I’ll feel off, pulled into doing too many things – off balance, stressed. We get focused on what we’re doing and lose sight of who we are.
Life balance is all about making choices. And those choices are not just about what you are doing – it’s more about who you are being.
Our busy lives cause busy women and Moms to lose sight of who they are. We allow our roles as professionals or Mom define who we are. Entrepreneur, business owner, sales professional, Johnny’s Mom, Susie’s Mom, etc. – underneath those titles and roles – who are we really?
Aligning your life around what’s truly important and who you are will allow for a more focused, balanced and stress-free life. Concentrate your time and energy on your personal and professional values and priorities. Be willing to say No to everything else.
