Balancing The Important Things at Work & Home
Yesterday I spent the day hanging out with Ben on his school field trip. He's been asking me all year to sign up as a chaperone and the timing always conflicted with things on the business calendar. Yesterday was no different, however the business event was a networking meeting so it was a little easier to miss. To compensate for the lack of face time with the wonderful ladies in attendance, and the lack of admin time before and after, I got very strategic and intentional throughout the past week. I knew that by doing so, I'd see much success!
Here are some of the things I did:
Worked the Sat before.....and after! The Sat before there was another event with the same networking group. Normally I don't do events on Sat am because I like them to be family time. However, since I was getting the family time the following Fri, I made the exception. This also gave me face time with some of the same people I was going to miss on Fri.
I posted in the FB group for the networking event before AND after the event. This ensured that people saw my face and thought of me, even though I wasn't there. Additionally, my post reinforced my brand message. I teach people to balance happy lives with happy businesses. To reinforce this message, I shared in the group the reason I wouldn't be there so I could be an example of what I teach.
I scheduled 1:1 meetings with people from the group during the week.
I attended networking events with two separate groups the day before.
I worked early Fri morning and Fri late afternoon/early evening to ensure the admin things I had to do got accomplished.
So often we all strive for balance and when we don't get it, we feel defeated. Balance on a daily basis is an illusion. The key is to try and find balance within a week or month. As you can see from my example above, not every day can be perfectly balanced. We can, though, take time at the start of a week or a month to remember what's most important to us, both at work and home, and build time for each into our plans.
When all is said and done, it really is about the little things in life, especially for our kids. Look at that smile on Ben's face! He was so excited just to have me there with him.