Recently, in a conversation about showing up for women in different ways, as coaches, friends, mentors, peers, wives, daughters, mothers and all the other roles that women can hold in their life, we talked about work-life balance and what that means for women. We also talked about the visual of a teeter-totter (do they even still have those at playgrounds?) and how hard it was to ever have it exactly in balance and that it was a good visual for the challenge to finding "work-life balance".
That image also got us thinking about where do you see success in balancing and the circus came up - balancing on the high wire, balancing a stack of plates or glasses or balancing on the unicycle were all examples of successfully balancing. The reality is that, especially as women, we rarely, if ever, find the balance. So, we are here to suggest that the balancing act can stay firmly in the circus as an act, but we are taking a new approach.
It's actually a pretty simple one - STOP trying to balance. Be messy, honor what you love, know what your glass balls are (those non-negotiables that cannot afford to be dropped) and let everything else go into the rubber ball basket (if you drop it, it will bounce back up and be okay).
Some days (or weeks or months) will be all about your personal life and others will be more about work but stop beating yourself up when you don't get the balancing act perfectly right - it is perfectionism on steroids and it is crushing us!
We all recognize it and bet we can all relate to the stories that are likely scrolling through our brains right now - the date night where we could not put our phones down or the soccer game we missed because we had to be at the meeting or the big presentation we flubbed because we were trying to "balance" everything.
Back to our message to STOP trying to balance. You might be thinking "how"? and that is where you come in! It starts with knowing what you want, and knowing what you don't, and then defining your boundaries and holding yourself accountable to them. It's messy, it's definitely not a clear, straight line and it will feel uncomfortable, unfamiliar and maybe even like FAILURE but it is the path to leaving the balancing act to the circus!
If you are ready to stop trying to join the circus of perfectionism with your work-life balance, and learn how to embrace your own path to what matters most, we would love to chat with you about some of the tools we have to help you do that, on your own terms.
Click HERE and we will set up a time to connect with you. We can't wait!
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