Do you ever wonder what it’s all for? Do you sometimes think it would be easier to pack it all in and go back to work for someone else rather than for yourself? I’m sure many women in business feel that way at some point.
We put way too much pressure on ourselves to be the perfect business women, the perfect mother, the perfect wife.
But what’s perfect? And is it even achievable? Absolutely not, I say! But what we can achieve is still pretty great.
I know I feel the pressures of running my own business every day, and it’s not just managing the workload and nurturing my clients – what spills over into those feelings of pressure is my brain constantly going about the housework that hasn’t been done to the standard of other ‘good mothers’, the dinner menu isn’t to Martha Stewart standard, and the kids aren’t booked into so many after school activities your head would spin. I want to have a house that’s completely dust free and the washing isn’t competing with the kids growth chart. I want to be able to serve up gourmet meals every night. I want to be able to give every opportunity I possibly can to my children. But let’s face it – there just aren’t enough hours in the day, money in the bank, or energy in your body, to do all of that. So what can you do?
1. Get rid of unrealistic expectations
These are filling your brain with stress and they are going to weigh you down to the point that nothing will ever be good enough – in your eyes anyway. Don’t worry that the washing doesn’t get folded for a few days – as long as everybody has clean clothes to wear each day, it’s irrelevant whether those socks came from the closet or the laundry. Don’t worry if you occasionally dish up a gourmet meal of eggs on toast for dinner – it’s still nourishing food, and still made with love. When you stop worrying about these little things, you’ll start to realise that it really doesn’t matter and you’ll have more energy to focus on the things that really do matter.
2. Learn to delegate
Once you’ve gotten rid of those unrealistic expectations, you can delegate some of the other things that you’d still like to be done, but don’t have the time or expertise to do them yourself. Learning to delegate is the key to leveraging yourself. Hire a cleaner; engage a tutor; employ staff or contractors. This leaves you to work on the important things – the things in your business that you’re passionate about, and of course being the best mothers and wife you can be.
3. Manage your time
I can literally hear you rolling your eyes at me – but it really can be done. Now you’ve realigned your expectations and delegated some tasks, here are three ways you can manage your time better:
- Learn to say no – it’s physically and emotionally not possible to say yes to everything. It means nothing, other than you’ve got other things, at this moment, which are more important.
- Use a schedule – write things down and you don’t have to hold them in your head – there’s enough already going on up there.
- Eat the frog – if you haven’t heard this term, it means do the most difficult task first. Otherwise you could spend a lot of time fluffing around and wasting time because you’re avoiding this task. When you get that out of the way first, you’ll feel so much more relaxed getting on with the other things you need to do.
Remember that you’re only one woman. You’re already a cherished wife and mother to your husband and children. You’re already a successful business women. So be kind to yourself – you’re already the best woman you can be, right now!
