As a woman business owner or entrepreneur, it can some times be difficult to find a successfully balance between work and family life. Sometimes the biggest thing stopping this balance is yourself.
About.com’s Women In Business guide, Lahle Wolfe, discusses this topic in a recent blog post. “Many women are their own worst enemies when it comes to listing the reasons their lives are out of balance,” she writes. ” Women pushed their own needs and desire deep down in order to make sure the needs of others are met.”
“At work, they often feel the pressure to work harder or longer hours to compete with men.,” she continued. “At home, they may feel as if it is their job to cook, clean, pay bills, run all the errands, and tend to the kids.”
Wolfe says it’s important to put family first but to remember your own needs in the process. She breaks things down into four simple steps to help you overcome yourself and find a better work-life balance.
For the first step, she says you should write a “Dear Abby,” letter to yourself, expressing some of your wants and needs outside of work. “Begin by writing a letter to yourself. Think about what you are missing, need, want, and desire. Some of the things you long for may not be practical, but you may be surprised that just writing a letter that acknowledges your own needs can be a great first step to asserting them.”
Second, she says to mix your routine up by adding something new to it. “Rather than feeling like the days fly by, try something new for thirty days to add some interest or purpose into your daily routine,” Wolfe writes. “For the next thirty days, add a new activity or give something up. The trick is to change your routine in some way for thirty days that will refocus the passing of time from “where did it go?” to “here’s what I accomplished.””
Read Lahle’s full post here which contains the last two steps and remember to tune into MyCity4Her Radio on Monday, July 2 when we’ll chat with Orit Hashay, creator of Brayola.com, about her business and how she manages to find balance between family life and running her business.