The Work Balancing Act (or) How To Wear Many Hats
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Send to a friend by YMYou only have two choices to decide upon when it comes to trying to balance it all. Choice A is: I will, and Choice B is: I won't. Which will you choose?
Once upon a time, there was a woman. This woman wore so many hats upon her head that they created an unbearable weight upon her. Because of this incredible weight, a huge rut was created where ever she walked, and because she had so many hats upon her head she couldn’t see where she was going so she just kept walking in circles. One day, while this woman was walking in the rut she had created (which was now so deep you could hardly see her!) another woman who was wearing far more hats, happened to walk past. The first woman looked up at the second woman and asked; “How can you wear so many hats and not be stuck chin-deep in a rut like I am?” The second woman bent down on her knee to look the first woman in the eye, paused for a moment, and then replied, “Well that’s quite simple, these hats weigh nothing!”
The point in the above is this: we all have many “hats” we must wear and it can be a real challenge not to feel overwhelmed or to feel as though we have this huge weight we must bear. We may not be able to choose the “hats” we wear but we certainly have a choice in how we feel about it! We can choose to be like the first woman above and let these “hats” overwhelm us, making us feel as though we were in a rut and getting nowhere or, we can choose to be like the second woman and learn to balance our “hats” and get on with things.
I am wife to a wonderful husband, mother to three terrific kids, a part-time optometrists’ assistant, Work at Home business owner, contributing website editor, researcher, chef, housekeeper, activity coordinator, chauffeur, laundress, teacher, etc., etc., etc. In fact, some days I wear so many different “hats” that it was becoming pretty difficult to see where the heck I was going! And believe me, this was not making the balancing act any easier to achieve.
One day I was talking with my sister and I told her how overwhelmed I was feeling. I asked her how she managed to balance all the things she had going on (she definitely wears more “hats” than I) in her life? Well, quite simply put, she told me to look at it this way; “You have two options. Option one is you continue the way you are, feeling overwhelmed, out-of-control and miserable; or Option two is you stop feeling overwhelmed, take control and find the joy again in what you are doing!” My sister is wise…you can actually decide how you will think about things!
That’s why I decided to write this article. I’m sure that most of you have responsibilities other than to your business and that, like me, you too have had to struggle to find the balance in it all. I’ll bet that when you first established your Home Business one of your goals was to be able to spend more time with family and friends while still being able to bring in an income. This is an admirable reason for all the hard work you’ve put into your business but don’t let you good intentions become your undoing. It’s all too easy to become a slave to your business. Working all the time will only cause your business to suffer, as well as your relationships and your health! You need to have a break from work, just as sometimes you need to have a break from your other responsibilities. It’ll likely be during one of these breaks that you come-up with your best ideas!
In order to be successful with your business and maintain order and happiness in your life, you need to create a balance with all that you do. Establish a plan for each day and then do your best to implement it. Remember that you are not superhuman, and it’s okay if things don’t always go as planned; its okay if you can’t get everything done in a day; its okay to need to have some time to yourself. The key here is to just make sure you have a plan and then do your best to stick to it. There will be days when you will need to change your schedule, and that’s okay too. Don’t feel guilty about it. Believe me, you and those around you will be so much happier for it!
Here is an outline of the plan that I’ve discovered works best for me:
Whether a schedule like this would work for you is something only you can answer. Experiment, and find what works best for you and your family. Be willing to be somewhat flexible and realize that you will likely have to keep tweaking your schedule.
I believe that above all else, you need to prioritize those “hats” you wear. They are simply a fact of life so make the choice to not let them overwhelm you, to not be too hard on yourself for being less than superhuman, and to feel proud of what you are doing!
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