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Friday, October 28, 2016

Letting Go Of Balance

(Craft Street Design)

If you remember back in my pregnancy announcement, I mentioned that after the twins are born am I planning on quitting my part time job. It's a decision that I made quickly but it definitely was not made lightly. It is a pretty big deal to me.  I love working. I really truly do. I love getting to put into practice the stuff that I learned in school. I love problem solving. I love the intricacies of small businesses. I enjoy spending non-work time learning about work related topics. I listen to podcasts about leadership. I read articles about market trends. I love doing what I do. Even with all that, I knew that I couldn't continue working with three small children.
One thing that I know about myself is that I am not satisfied unless I am giving 110% to something. The problem with this type of personality is it is impossible to really and truly give all of your energy to everything. It makes prioritizing things hard. I should be able to everything and do it all well, right? Wrong. Something has to give. In the case, it is my job.
I really don't believe in work-life balance. The whole concept of trying to "balance" all the different items in our lives immediately sets us up for failure. The reality is, some things are more important or vital and therefore should receive more of our time and attention. I had a professor in school talk about shifting the discussion away from work-life balance to work-life blend. The idea being, those important or vital things are going to require more time and energy and they should be given the time and energy they need. We don't need to assume that all activities should be treated equally or given the same amount of consideration. This type of thinking was so liberating for me. It helps me limit my focus and prioritize what is important. In this case and this time in my life, the most important things is taking care of my family. If I decided to continue working, it would be to the detriment of my children. This is not a statement against working moms. I have the highest respect and admiration for women in the workforce. I just know myself really well and I know that if I continued to work after the twins were born, I would put myself in a position where I could not care for them correctly. Since, it is about blending my time and my energy, I am not going to fret about balancing out my efforts. While they are small and require so much, I really want to be able to give them the majority of my time and energy.
I like to think of it as a pie chart. Can you tell I am business nerd? The amount of time in the chart is finite because let's face it, I have to sleep. Taking care of the three little ones is going to take up a lot more time than anything else. So if I taking care of my family and everything that it entails is my main priority, that is going to severely limit the amount of time I have to spend on other things. I have to be conscientious to not add more things that I can reasonably handle. That automatically means that some things are not going to make the cut. It forces to prioritize and really come to grips with the fact that I can't do it all. I am looking forward to what this new season will teach me. Plus, it's just that, a season. This is not forever. Seasons change. I am going to make the most of this one and learn as much as I can.

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