Are you a woman business owner struggling with the juggling? You’re committed to running a successful business while also needing to manage your family life. It can begin to feel like one long marathon, day after day. It can be absolutely exhausting! Bet you’re ready to take a new approach. Are you ready to juggle work and family with ease?
Most women feel that one often overshadows the other (depending on the day and the deadline) and never seem to come to a place where they are comfortably managing both work and family. In this article you’ll find five key strategies to be an expert juggler. You can run a successful, profitable business that makes a difference in the world while also creating a loving, joyful family life that thrives. Let’s look at five powerful strategies:
1. Articulate “Who You Want to Be” Each Day
It’s important to articulate who you want to be (i.e. calm, patient, kind, loving) each day so you can frame your actions and words within that context. If you want to be more patient, for example, allow yourself to bring patience into every interaction in your business as well as into your communications with your family. By seamlessly integrating “who” you are in each environment, you’ll begin to feel better and experience more ease.
2. Clarify Your Work and Family Vision
With a clear vision, you can take clear action as you juggle your activities throughout the day. Begin by writing down your top three business goals and your top three family goals (they may be weekly, monthly or even annual). Give yourself time to clearly articulate your vision and create an action plan. Without this vision, you may feel as if you are running a race that has no end.
3. Know Your “High Impact Activities”
Review your vision and identify the high-impact activities for yourself (i.e. those actions that will bring the greatest results and place you closer to your goals). When you determine these, you gain a greater level of discernment about how to spend your time and energy. You can then “outsource” or eliminate the things that won’t produce results that are consistent with your vision(s).
4. Identify the Top Three Things to Complete Each Day
Choose the top three things you want to fully complete each day. Most people feel stress as they juggle work and family because so many things are incomplete. I want to challenge you to pick three juicy actions every day for both your business and family (six total) and complete them with vigor! When you do, you’ll feel a deep sense of ease and satisfaction.
5. Enlist the Help of Others (Colleagues, Assistants and Family)
Women often tend to feel they must complete everything on their own. It’s simply not realistic. Look for new ways to save time, money and energy by enlisting the help of others. It may be a friend, colleague or family member. A mentor once said to me, “When you tell someone where you are trying to go, they’ll help you get there.” Allow others to help you meet your goals. With this support, you’ll naturally create more ease for yourself.
Fiona, a gourmet foods entrepreneur in Australasia and the US, recently applied these powerful strategies during our 12-Week Work With Ease™ for Small Businesses program and was amazed at the results. She decided she was going to approach both her business and her family in a very different way. Within one month of establishing her “who to be,” vision and high-leverage activities, she was on the road to more ease. She felt clear, focused and ready to grow her business to the next level.
I wish you well as you begin to look for ways to juggle work and family with more ease. May you know joy, may you know peace and may you work with ease.