One shift down, one to go. A familiar routine if you’re juggling career and motherhood as you finish a busy day’s work and approach a second shift at home where mealtime, homework and house chores await. If you’re feeling the heat when it comes to balancing it all, you’re not alone. Those working different shift patterns to their other halves feel like ships passing in the night. Getting out the door in the morning often feels tougher than a marathon. In one sense the pandemic has brought about much needed flexibility which is the foundation for balance, yet after a year of homeschooling while navigating business and career uncertainty, that desired balance can feel further away for some.
Have you asked yourself recently what you need at this stage of your life? It’s a powerful question yet one so often neglected.
Let’s start with figuring out what you need from your career and whether those needs are being met. Perhaps when you started your business or accepted your current job, life looked a lot different to how it looks today as a mum juggling a busy career and a lively home. There are so many small tweaks that are available to you that could bring about greater job satisfaction and most importantly, balance. They could be tweaks on how you structure your day, how you delegate or how you approach your work.
Once you figure out what you need from your career to facilitate your lifestyle, you can then identify the tweaks required to do so. In order to find balance across all areas of our life, we can apply this technique widely. Identify the key areas of your life such as career, family, relationships, finance or wellness and consider how happy you are in each. You will very quickly realise which areas you need to probe further to identify the changes needed in order to become more fulfilled and as a result, achieve a more balanced lifestyle.
Through conversations with so many mums over the past year, I have noticed how quickly they have been to reject compliments on how incredible they are to simply just be doing it all, regardless of how “well” they feel the job(s) are being done. If you’re reading this during those sacred few minutes before you hear the word “mom” being called again, know that you’re doing it and doing it, is what matters.
For more career advice and support or to avail of online career workshops and webinars, check out Angela’s website angelaburke.ie or follow Angela on Instagram @angelaburke
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