If the term “work-life balance” makes you roll your eyes, you aren’t alone. According to the American Psycologocal Association, more than half of all women say they are “highly stressed.”
The competing pressures of work and family often leave us hustling to do it all. It seems that in order to achieve more ease one must expect to endure more anxiety. No wonder work-life balance feels laughable. The chase is exhausting.
When you adopt the mindset of trying to have it all, you’ll always come up short – constantly racing to acquire and accomplish more but never able to enjoy where you are.
If you find yourself in a cycle of surviving through your days instead of thriving, here are 3 practices to finally burn your superwoman cape.
1. Play to your strengths
No matter how hard you try, you can’t be a master of everything. Focus on the tasks that play to your strengths and delegate or outsource the rest.
- TRY THIS: Need a quick way to figure out if a task needs to get tossed? Here’s the litmus test: If it doesn’t light you up, you’re not the right person for the job. If there is someone who can do it better and faster than you, let it go.
2. Stop comparison in its tracks
Commit to making your life a comparison free zone. Going on Facebook twenty times per day to check out how your friends seem to do it all isn’t serving you. Life cannot fit into a neatly packaged status update so stop comparing yourself to the highlight reel on your newsfeed.
- TRY THIS: Compare yourself to the person you were yesterday. Keep a journal logging daily wins and accomplishments. What are you doing today that you couldn’t have done one year or even a few months ago? Focus on your growth and how you’ve become a stronger version of you.
3. Lighten your Load
It’s a sobering reality to admit this but if it’s on your plate, it’s because you said yes to it. That doesn’t mean that this gives you a pass to beat yourself up about feeling overwhelmed.
- TRY THIS: Give yourself the gift of forgiveness and acknowledge that you’re human. Instead of dwelling on the question “What was I thinking?” ask yourself ‘What am I learning?’ Let go of the past and focus on how you can make things better for your future.
By Chivon John
