Monday 21 August 2017

Is Work-Life Balance a Trap for Mothers?

Achieving a Work-Life Balance

Writing for me is more than a hobby. I want to make it my career and I am well on my way. I have just signed by 15th picture book contract and started my own company, Share Your Story, to help aspiring authors realise their dream of becoming published storytellers.

Achieving a work-life balance, providing for my family and setting a good example for our kids is above other things why I want to be successful. Balancing having the time and energy to look after my family and the time and energy to put into my passion is my top reason for wanting to achieve a work-life balance. When your goal is hard, and your dream is bigger than your comfort zone, can living a dream for someone else really be enough to keep you motivated? Is it so awful to want to achieve something just for yourself? Have we become so scared of being labelled 'selfish' and a 'bad mother' because we want to pursue a career that the term Work-Life Balance is something that is used when we are 'failing' to put our family first?  My kids love me and they want me to be happy, so does hubby. But, do they want the dream I have? Do they share my passion? The answer is no. Doing it for them is not enough. I have to do it for the love of working for myself. What other people think of me is a huge achievement-blocker that needs to be overcome because when my goal becomes difficult to reach, it will be easy to stop and justify failure by saying it didn't turn out to be the right thing for my family, that I didn't have a work-life balance and I will listen to the million reasons why I shouldn't keep trying. What if it was the right thing for me and I just gave in because it meant my family would have had to make some changes and sacrifices for me to achieve it? That is part of achieving a work-life balance, placing your passion as a priority and not always the other way around.

When I do achieve balance, true balance will come with the love and support of my family and a business that allows me to give them the time they need along with a wife and mother who is energised and successful with her chosen career. Work-life balance will something I have done for myself as well as my family and I will be proud of that.



No comments:

Post a Comment