Last year, my word of the year was “Fearless”. I had a lot of challenges that I felt were holding me back from my true potential, so I focused on being fearless so I can be bold in my pursuits and face challenges head on.
My word for this year is “Intentional.”
Whether it be in my business, being a mom, in my lifestyle choices, in my diet, or in any other aspect of my life, I found that taking action is not enough. I had to take more intentional actions with my goals.
So what is being intentional all about?
In this post, I will discuss some ways that you can take intentional actions and make intentional choices in your life and business.
We’ll start with the definition. What exactly is intentional action?
Taking intentional actions means focusing more on the result and knowing that the actions you are taking are in line with the result you want to achieve.
Set SMART Goals
For example, one goal I have is to lose weight this year. I’ve tried diets in the past and none have worked that well, I eat healthy regularly, and I do yoga in the morning. While these are all very noble things that may help me maintain a healthy weight or lose a few pounds, they don’t have a specific end result in mind.
A better goal would be, I want to lose 15 pounds by June of this year. I will do that by going on the Keto diet because that has worked for me before, dedicating 2-3 days a week to running a mile, and working on building muscle so I can burn fat more efficiently.
Not only is there a clear set goal and a specific end date, but the plan also breaks down exactly what will work for me and how to accomplish it. It’s a well catered thought out solution with intentional goals to reach it.
Cutting Out Distraction
One great way to be more intentional is to cut out the distractions.
The other day I went out for a run with my 3 year old and took her out to Denny’s for breakfast. A little mommy and me date 🙂
I felt like a really spend quality time with my daughter because I was fully immersed in being with her. I didn’t check my phone or think about other things, the main focus was on her.
Whether it be in parenting or in your business, you must fully immerse yourself in what you are doing.
Benefits of intentional action include:
Get more done
Feel like you’ve spent quality time with people
Learn more from others
Feeling heard/listened to
Being productive
Managing time better
Seeing better results
Don’t Just Throw Spaghetti On the Wall
While some people suggest “throwing spaghetii on the wall and seeing what sticks” I wonder why you would even waste the energy.
Sure, you may land on the one thing that will work for you after you’ve tried a hundred other things, but is that really efficient?
Not at all.
And it’s not intentional either.
Taking intentional action is about having direction and purpose for each action.
Learn what you are trying to accomplish, get an understanding of it
Admit what you don’t know
Find someone who has done it before and set up a conversation or coaching
Do more of what works and less of what doesn’t
Know your end goal and create a plan to get there
Check out my goal planner to break down each goal into easy bite sized peices. Post your goals in a visible place so you can see them each day.
Measure Data and Review Your Actions Frequently
While you may think that you are taking intentional actions towards a goal, how do you know?
Review your progress on your goals and what actions you took.
See what worked and what didn’t work.
Then plan your next intentional action towards doing what works.
If you don’t take some time to review your actions and your progress on your goals, it is easy to get off track and start taking unproductive, unintentional actions.
Keep a journal where you record what you accomplished the previous week. What worked for you, what didn’t, and what can you improve?
Be Consistent
Simple concept.
If you are persistent, you will get it. If you are consistent, you will keep it.
Practicing consistent intentional actions will allow you to be more productive, less distracted, and get value out of every interaction.
We all get the same 24 hours in the day. How will you spend yours?
-Eric Thomas
What is everyone’s most valuable resource? Time. It is important to learn how to efficiently manage your time so that you can start living actively instead of reactively. When you grasp how to manage your time you will be more productive on your personal long term goals.
Time management can really be broken down into a 3-step process:
Record Your Time
Manage Your Time
Consolidate Your Time
When you learn to conquering these three pillars of time management you will begin to see a more structured and organized life with enough time for every goal.
Lets take a look at how these pillars can help with time management.
Record Your Time
The first thing you have to find out when you decide to manage your time is find out where your time is going. So often we say that time just “flies by” or that we just “don’t have time” for something, but we never even look at the clock.
How do you know how much time you have if you don’t measure it?
Recording your time and how much time you spend on certain tasks will allow you to plan your time better and more efficiently.
Here are a few ways you can be more efficient in measuring and recording your time.
Record how much time you spend on each work-related task
Record how much time you spend doing non-work related tasks
Separate out repeated tasks from one-time tasks
Analyze where your time is going and what changes you can make
Once your time is recorded, you can really focus on what needs to be done first, where you have time, and how much work you can get done in time increments.
Manage Your Time
After you know where your time is going, you will be able to more effectively manage your time. Here are some things you can do to manage your time better.
Figure out what is most important, somewhat important, and least important. Split tasks into these categories.
Schedule in time for breaks (completely disconnecting from work during those breaks to give your mind a break)
Keep a calendar of important tasks to accomplish this day, week, month, and year
Set time limits for certain tasks
Learn how to manage repeated tasks more efficiently
You only have a certain amount of hours in a day so the more effectively you can manage your time, the more you can get done.
Consolidate Your Time
Another way to effectively manage your time is to consolidate your time so you can have more time. Figure out what is missing in your life.
What do you want to have time for?
Consolidate your time by doing a few simple things:
Batch tasks that are similar
Try to cut down and make tasks take a shorter amount of time
Do the hardest tasks first
Break up your time into blocks
Finish one task before moving to the next task
Work smarter, not harder.
Have you ever heard the quote by Abraham Lincoln?
Tell me I have 6 hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first 4 hours sharpening the axe.
Time management is similar to this. If you prepare to manage your time, you will be successful. If you don’t prepare, you will waste a lot of time.
Have you ever say down to write an article or paper and we’re just drawing a blank?
You end up spending more time just staring at a blank page than writing. Yet, when you know what you want to write about the words just flow out of your fingers onto the page.
You have to take that time and get clear on your message and your goals before you start. While it may seem counterproductive, it makes a huge difference.
Life is more enjoyable when you feel confident. It’s also easier to be successful. A lack of confidence can get in the way of your career, relationships, and social life. Low self-confidence can trip you up when you least expect it.
When you have fears and self-doubt, your self-confidence is not high. You may feel lost, confused, and lack a clear direction which can affect how you show up in the world.
Imagine how your life would change if you had the self-confidence to do the things you don’t feel like you can do now. No more obstacles holding you back from achieving your goals.
Luckily, your sense of self-confidence is under your control. If you avoid managing it, it will be lower than you deserve. But if you grab control of it, you will live a much more fulfilling and satisfying life.
You don’t deserve anything less than the best. When you have strong self-confidence you have the power to command control from your situation and master your life. You are more confident in your decisions, plans, and actions. Success comes a lot faster and more efficiently.
So what are some steps you can take to get more confidence in yourself?
Increase your self-confidence and feel better about yourself and your future:
Have a small success.
Take on a small task or something around the house that you have been meaning to do, like getting the garage cleaned out. Have an intention and follow through on it. When you intend to do something and accomplish it, you feel more confident.
My personal favorite is completing a blog post. When I complete it, I feel a great sense of satisfaction and confidence that I am capable of achieving what I set out to do. Any kind of art or writing will give that sense of satisfaction once finished.
Let go of the past.
You’ve had a few things go wrong in the past, but that has nothing to do with today. Your future is created today. There’s no reason to weigh yourself down with anything that’s happened in the past.
Exercise.
Go for a run or do 25 pushups. Even a vigorous walk can boost your self-confidence. When we feel and look healthy our self-confidence goes up. Even just a small amount of exercise can boost your confidence.
Build your social skills.
A lack of social skills is a common cause of low self-confidence. Interacting with others is an important activity. When you know that you can do it well, your self-confidence will increase. There are many books and websites created to address this issue, but my favorite is How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Here some other useful books and journals to track your progress.
Hang out with a positive crowd.
The people around you affect your mood and outlook on life. Your confidence is affected, too.
Create a social group that supports you and maintains a positive attitude.
Find a Facebook group that you relate with.
Call some close friends and have a movie night or other outing.
Talk with family or close friends about your goals and dreams. Let them encourage you to pursue your goals.
Join a support group in your community for your particular obstacle.
Tackle a fear.
Afraid of spiders? Go to the pet store and ask to hold a tarantula. Fear of heights? Find a building downtown that allows the public to use the observation deck. We make every effort to avoid the things we fear. Rather than hiding, face a fear head-on and notice how confident you feel afterwards. Bravery and self-confidence are cousins.
The fear that you tackle doesn’t have to be a physical fear. Many fears are in the form of mental blocks such as talking to strangers. Get over your mental fear by striking up a conversation with a random stranger. Compliment someone or use a comment to start conversing.
Make a list of your past successes.
You’ve had at least a few. You’ve probably forgotten more than you remember! Take just a minute or two to remember these great successes. You’ll feel more powerful after just 60 seconds.
TIP: Make a list and carry it with you. Start with your childhood and move forward in time to the present day. When you’re feeling down, pull out your list and bask in your successes.Do something you’re good at. After a hard day, nothing can boost your confidence like spending some time at an activity you excel at. Make a list of the things you do well and spend some time each day doing one of them. Build this time into your schedule.
If possible, create a social event around the activity. Having someone see you do something well is an even bigger boost to your self-confidence. You will get praise from your peers and feel that sense of accomplishment.
Get out of your head.
A lack of confidence is a sign that you’re spending too much time thinking about yourself and the negative traits you possess. Put the focus on others and the current activity. Learn to live in the moment. It’s hard to lack confidence if you’re not even thinking about yourself.
If you’re alone, spend time doing something that engrosses your attention. Something such as writing allows you to get out of your head and stop thinking about negative thoughts. Reflect on your blessings and you will begin to quickly feel better.
Take time each day to enhance your self-confidence. Just a few minutes of effort can change the way you feel about yourself. Everything is easier and more enjoyable when you’re confident in your abilities.
How I Boost My Self Confidence
I personally have two things that I do in order to increase my self-confidence:
1) Visualize a confident version of myself. I imagine what it would be like to be a self-confident me. What would I do that I wouldn’t normally? What would I be proud of myself for? How can I show self-confidence daily?
2) Read affirmations that support being strong, independent, self-confident, and overcoming doubt. You can get affirmations delivered to your inbox with my newsletter, The Inspire Flyer.
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Imagine the best version of yourself. Avoid allowing the world to dictate your level of self-confidence. Take control of this important trait.
Do things that allow you to build your confidence and take intentional action towards building your confidence. After time, you will find that the more you practice, the more confident you will become without even thinking about it.
When you are first starting on the internet, there are many things that can trip you up. Most of the time it is knowledge on what to do next. Or maybe it is writer’s block and you can’t seem to create content. But what if it is something more? Something that doesn’t have an easy fix or a learning curve.
What held me back in my blogging journey was harder than ever to get through. It may sound silly, but I had a deep fear of putting myself out there on the internet.
Growing up in the 90’s
You see, I grew up in the 90’s. The internet had just reached homes when I was in middle school. My mom didn’t trust the internet and had us follow some simple rules.
Don’t use your real name
Don’t use anything that can be tied to you (birthday numbers, age, house number, etc…)
Don’t put your location
Back when I was a kid, these seemed like reasonable requests. I created a screen name that had nothing to do with myself and it stuck up until college.
Now that I’m older, my kid screen name is well…a little naive.
It’s not something I would want to use for business or other online endeavors. So I had to create a new online identity.
The Reality of Branding Myself
The internet seems to have changed so much from the 90’s. I remember blogging on LiveJournal, creating my page on MySpace, and making webpages on Angelfire. It was all just for fun back then without a real driven purpose.
Today it is different. First, I’m already known on some social media as my real name. If people wanted to find out about me I’m sure they could just Google me. For every social media account, I try to keep a similar handle.
THE BEAUTY OF THE INTERNET IS YOU CAN BE ONE PERSON AND YOU CAN BE A HUNDRED PEOPLE.
More and more people are using their real name, a stage name, or a business name to brand themselves online.
Branding yourself online is a combination of your values and what you support. It is what you are known for in the online community.
In order to gain trust in the online community, you have to tell people about yourself, about your life, and your general location if relevant. If you don’t feel like a real person, then it is hard to gain the trust of others in online communities. I realized that I was afraid of putting myself out there and telling others about my life.
It’s my life, it’s private to me. But how can I compete with others who are putting themselves out there?
I have considered several options:
Create a business brand instead of a personal brand
Making a new identity, a stage name if you will
A Place to Network
Small fears sprout up in my mind. Will people take me seriously? What makes me stand out as unique? Why do people want to hear from me?
I realized I need to stop being afraid of what I don’t know. I don’t know if people will like me, follow me, want to read my posts. The fear has paralyzed me from taking action. I know I can’t be the only one with this fear either. Anyone who is older than 28 today is most likely not that keen on putting their information online, nor do they feel good about creating a completely new identity.
We see the internet as this big environment of learning new things and catching up with friends. I never saw it as a place to meet new people because that was always discouraged.
Now the ability to network is not only engrained in our children from a young age, but it is also an essential part of survival in today’s digital world.
We are all online to learn, to network, to tell the world about our businesses and professions, to tell others how we make an impact in the world and why they should support you. Talking to others online is a necessary evil and no matter how scary, we must evolve.
NETWORKING WITH OTHERS IS WHAT THE INTERNET WAS BUILT FOR.
Vulnerable vs. Being Authentic
Is it still possible to be vulnerable on the internet and get taken advantage of?
The short answer is yes.
You still have to watch out and never post demeaning photos of yourself or others, post your exact address or phone number, or meet people outside the internet alone. That makes you vulnerable.
Instead, it is time we opt for being authentic.
Being authentic today is showing up online, with all your morals, values, hobbies, reality, and personality in full view. Your authentic online presence makes up your inner self and it gives people just the right amount of information about who you are to support you and follow you.
Generation Y Advantage
In a way, I feel like my generation has an advantage. We are growing up with the advantage that we could really create an online presence. We could promote ourselves, we could get internet famous with one funny video. We could have our 15 minutes of fame on the internet, or we could stay in the limelight.
From an introvert to another introvert, why would I want all eyes on me?
When you get traffic, people visiting your site or speaking with you, you have more of a chance of people liking you. They in turn follow you or give you their email address so you can update them on your life. These people support you. You can market to these people and perhaps develop an income online.
I see now more people that make claims of internet success and profit. Many people live off the internet and make great incomes blogging or creating webpages or doing internet marketing. Many people have a personal brand and they are not afraid to promote it.
These people are making part time or full time incomes online, just for putting themselves out there.
Today it is easier than ever to become an influencer and turn others on to things that you love or use daily. And if your audience is full of loyal supporters, you will get people paying for things you promote.
It benefits you to put yourself out there a little and tell others what has helped you, what you like and use, and most importantly, what can help them.
WHEN YOU START HELPING OTHERS, THAT’S WHEN YOUR SUPPORTERS GROW AND START HELPING YOU.
Since Generation Y or Millennials are getting increasingly familiar with digital technologies, it is becoming more common to see entrepreneurs out of this generation. Yet the Generation Z’s are catching up. They have a comfort with technology that we will never have. The majority of their socializing is on social media instead of interacting with people in person.
It’s really quite interesting.
Share What You Know
It seems like what the internet did was make knowledge a lot more accessible. Of course, no one is going to know everything, but everyone knows something. The internet has now become a tool to share your expertise. It is literally built from the information that people know or perceive. It is also built on the reactions of other people and they keep the conversation evolving.
Don’t be ashamed of what you have to share. It doesn’t have to be in a Top Ten Ways list or a How to post, your knowledge can be shared however you would like it to be.
When you show what you know and your expertise, you automatically create your brand. You create something that you stand for and that is important to you. There are millions of people on the internet and no one is going to get stuck on your 15 minutes of fame. We can all help each other get there and keep the conversation going.
What I Stand For
This post would not be complete without a realization on what I discovered about myself. It is only natural that when I talk about sharing your views and branding, that I share what I have learned about myself and what I have to share.
This is me being transparent.
I remember back to my days of LiveJournal and the random blogging I did on my frustrations with classmates or the crush I had on a boy. I had always been an advocate of telling it like it is. That is one value I will not stray from. I will always try to be honest and upfront.
As well, I will always strive to make my audience think. I will give them a different view, something that they maybe haven’t thought of.
Lastly, I hope to share what I know. I’ve been blogging for some time now and I would love to share what I have learned about blogging and how to get started blogging. Your blog should have it’s own unique personality and should give your audience your expertise on a topic.
THE MORE YOU LEARN, THE MORE EXPERTISE YOU POSSESS.
Here are some take-aways that I will impart on you before I finish…
Keep learning and growing.
Don’t be afraid to share what you know.
Get involved in the community.
Help others and they will help you.
Give yourself a brand name and stick to your values.
You don’t have to post what you have for breakfast everyday, but if you can find your thing, your niche, your section of the internet, with the people that also enjoy that thing, you are well set up for success in the internet world.
If you have the same fears that I had putting myself out there on the internet, then that’s okay. You don’t have to tell people your life story. Peel off a small layer of yourself, help others with what you can, and keep the conversation going.
I’d love to know what you think, keep the conversation going by commenting below.
This year I have been very focused on moving up in the company I work for. Interviewing has never been a strong quality of mine as my nerves occassionally get in the way. I never knew how to properly prepare for an interview. But this year I’ve had a focus on changing that and improving my interview game.
While everyone is different and all interviews are different, I feel like I have made a huge improvement from where I was at the beginning of the year and can therefore help those who are where I was at the start of the year, shy, timid, and nervous.
I will go over a few helpful tips that have helped me prepare for an interview. My last interview I felt like I knocked it out of the park and I want you to feel the same when you go for your interview.
Know your why
Before this year, I was fully focused on my own production and proving that I can produce sales. Now I have an urge to do more and help more people and this will come with a promotion into a leadership position.
What is your why?
Why are you going for this position in particular?
Not only will you most likely be asked that at the interview, so it would be good to be ready with an answer, but also knowing you why will help you be in the right mindset when giving your interview answers.
While in the back of my mind the financial stability would be great, there are definitely other more important reasons for going for the position. I want to be challenged at work, I want to help others, I want to help the company grow, I want to learn leadership skills.
All these reasons just solidified the right mindset when asked the question “Why do you want this position?”
Be Prepared
While this one seems like a no brainer, it’s important to not only be prepare for an interview, but also to prepare in the right way.
One helpful suggestion I recently implemented is to call the interviewer before your interview. Ask them 1-2 questions to get an idea of who they are looking for to fill the position.
Ask them about the company’s or the store’s goals or what type of leadership is needed for that location. These questions will help you clarify your objectives in your interview.
You don’t want to repeat word for word the answer you get from the interviewer, but you do want to cater your answers to help solve a problem or ideas on how to move the company in the direction it’s goals are aimed.
Study up on your interview questions
An interviewer has a large arsenol of questions to ask. There are even questions catered to a particular person or personality type. How do you know what they will ask?
You won’t.
Unless you have mind-reading skills, you will not know what questions will be asked. Be prepared with answers to the main types of questions that get asked in interviews.
Be ready with behavior based questions as well as personality based questions.
Behavior-based questions
Behavior-based questions are questions that ask about a scenario or a behavior and how you overcame a challenge. It is important to know what the interviewer is looking for in the answer to these questions.
Example questions:Tell me about a time you had a stressful situation and how did you handle it?
With these type of questions, you want to remember STAR:
S – Situation > Set the scene. What challenges were you facing? What was the problem?
T – Task > Explain your responsibility in that situation.
A – Action > Describe how you completed the task, solved the problem, or resolved the conflict.
R – Result > Explain the result from the action taken and how it improved the situation, company, or culture.
Occasionally you will get the interviewer that asks more personality-based questions to get an idea of what you think about yourself and what others think about you.
One popular question you should be prepared for is,
”What are three words that a friend or coworker would use to describe you?”
More personality questions include,
”What would your manager say is your best quality?”
”What would your manager say is your worst quality, or quality that needs improvement?”
”How would your coworkers describe you?”
“How would you describe yourself? What do you think is your best quality?”
These questions are used to get an idea of how others view you and how you think about yourself. It is good to have these type questions prepared.
Reach out to your manager or your coworkers or friends and ask them to describe you in three words. You don’t have to guess, most people are willing to give you some great qualities to use in your interview.
Review your accomplishments
Knowing your own accomplishments and history is a great way to show you are capable of the position you are applying for.
Keep in mind that most employers only care about what you did over this past year. They don’t care about what you achieved last year. So cater the promotion of your achievements to things that were done recently.
Let your numbers speak for you
An easy way to completely fail an interview, even if it was the best interview you ever had, is to go in with low numbers or percentages.
The interview could be right on point, but if you are only trending 50% of your goals, it won’t go that far.
Employers and managers are looking to hire people who can not only check all the boxes and have an outstanding interview, but who also have the performance metrics to back them up.
If you are not at goal, you can still interview, but make sure you have accomplishments that you can go over to off-set your low numbers. Never and I mean, NEVER, blame your low performance or low numbers on anything! Don’t blame it on other people or the traffic of the store or the season or customers.
Potential employers want to know that you can take responsibility for your numbers and your actions.
Have Confidence
Regardless if you know all the answers, have great performance or not, or anything, having confidence in yourself goes a long way.
Show the interviewer that you are strong and confident.
If you are nervous, take a deep breathe. Look your interviewer in the eyes, cross your legs and look comfortable. Give a strong handshake. Ask how their day is going.
Keep in mind they are people too. They had to go through the same interview to get their position. Try to let your guard down. Of course, don’t get too comfortable with them, but at the same time be personable.
Recently I was beat out of a position because of a tactic that I just didn’t think about. The interviewee produced a page of contacts that the interviewer could reach out to and all of those people were able to recommend them and say great things about them. Typing up a recommendations page is a great way to prepare for an interview.
Who would recommend you?
Think about your network. If you made a page of recommendations, who would be on there? Would all those people say great things about you?
Call a few of your previous managers and coworkers. Ask if you could use them as a recommendation. Most people are more than willing to rant about you in all the best ways.
If it could make the difference in whether or not you get the position, isn’t it worth the time to make a simple phone call?
That’s all I have for you. I hope I have helped you in getting some new ideas on how to prepare for an interview. Don’t worry about it, you got this.
Are you a mom trying to juggle starting your own business and raising kids?
Today I am going to talk about what it’s like to be a mompreneur, the struggles that are real, and how to give time to and prioritize both in your life so you can really show up in a good way to both your clients and your kids.
First things first, I have to do a shout out to my good friend Caz Gaddis and a huge congratulations on her new podcast More Than A Parent. In this podcast, she goes into how to be your best self as a person and a parent. She is on a mission to empower parents to choose themselves first so they can really show up for their kids in a meaningful way.
Listening to Caz’s story inspired me to really look into my own views about being a parent and having a business and I found out I definitely held onto some limiting beliefs.
Here are just a few limiting beliefs about being a parent and an entrepreneur that have made their way into my thoughts.
Being a parent, I don’t have time to start a business.
Running a business would take away time from my child.
I can’t start a business because I want to spend time with my baby while she is young.
I won’t be able to show up fully for clients while my baby is competing for my attention.
Not only that but I have my own experiences of my parents running their own business while raising me. My dad had started a security system business when I was about 8 years old. My mom worked with him as the bookkeeper. I have fond memories of getting out of school and me and my brother hanging out watching movies in the Theatre Room (a demo room for automated technology).
I grew up around a lot of new technology and it was exciting as a kid, probably prompting me to get into the technology field today working with the latest phones daily and having a passion for automation and technology that improves life.
My dad passed away when I was 12 years old. The business was left to my mom who wasn’t a strong entrepreneur type and didn’t know how to run the business. The business was sold and eventually dissolved.
I think about all the time that if my dad was here with me today, he could have showed me so much. I could have learned first hand how to start a business with a small startup amount and grow it to become profitable. I’m sure he meant to start that business so me and my family would be set up in the future and not have to work for someone else, but that is not the way it worked out.
My dad worked hard and long hours, but he still had time for family and family outings on the boat every weekend. I really appreciated that time he had with us.
Now as an adult, I feel like I have the same entrepreneurial drive and passion that he had. I have the willpower and the ability to follow in his footsteps but the only thing I am lacking is the knowledge and that trusted person pushing me to go for it and take risks.
My mom didn’t take risks and never wanted me to take any risks; she preferred the safe route. My boyfriend is a hardcore realist and is not able to work with me and focus on one thing. So I am left supporting the household (almost entirely) at a corporate job that doesn’t help me improve my skills in entrepreneurship and pursue my passions.
Do What You Want to Do
It’s hard for me knowing that I have this passion inside of me and I am not able to pursue it. I’ve always thought, how easy it is for some people to say “just do what you want to do.” To them, I say, easy for you to say.
This is not the life I envisioned for myself at 32 years old. It’s not financial there or emotionally there and sometimes I am overwhelmed.
I imagined my 32 year old self living comfortably, maybe working on buying a house, having a job that fuels my passions, and having enough time to spend time with my baby and also have time for my hobbies.
As a mom, I give so much to my kid and the household. Sometimes I feel like a sinking ship.
It’s true there are certain unnegotiables when it comes to being a parent, after all, if you had to choose between being with your kids or working on your business, it’s a tough choice. Most of us moms, I’m sure, would choosing being with our children.
But it’s not about the choice. It should never be about the choice. It should be about working on your business so that you can create a better life for you and your kids. You can do both. You can do one to enhance the experience of the other and enjoy the journey.
How I Make Time For Being a Mom and Running a Business
The reality is that the urge for starting my own business is not going to go away. I have realized it is my calling and until I’m on my deathbed, I will not stop reaching towards this goal.
Of course there will not be a break in motherhood either as that is constantly ongoing. I have to learn to live doing both. Although it may be a long slow road, one day, I pray, my goals will be reachable.
So how do I work at my business while being a mom?
1: Batching tasks
Being a mom has made me really good at breaking up tasks into small chunks. These small sections of time have to be super focused on what needs to get done.
The goal is to do more of the 20% that works in your business and eliminate more of the 80% that is not working.
2: Take advantage of naptime
Using naptime to really get some work done is ideal. You can at least dedicate about 2-3 hours to your work while your baby is fast asleep.
Being that this is interrupted time, make sure you are using it wisely. Get things done that need your full attention.
For example, something like creating graphics on Canva or posting to Pinterest I can do on my spare time with my cell phone. Although, writing a full length blog post is something that takes time and consideration. I need to schedule these for naptime or else I will never build enough concentration to make it happen.
3: Finding time inbetween
In between running back and forth to the daycare, cleaning house, going shopping, and my day job there are small pockets of time where I can really focus on my business.
It may take giving up watching movies at night or using my down time for a long spa-like bubble bath, at least in the beginning. I have to use that time wisely to make sure I am set up for success in my future.
4: Treat your side hustle like a business
It is important to realize that if you want to get somewhere, you have to work on it. It’s not called a side hustle without the “hustle”. Without that, it is just a side hobby.
Learn about your trade and dedicate time to it. If you have an important client, invest in putting your baby in daycare and go to the meeting. Work on meaningful projects. Learn new skills. Do more of what works.
5: Invest in yourself first
When you can, invest in yourself. What I mean by that is invest in things that you know will make you better in the future. Instead of buying something random at the store, think about investing that money back into your business.
I say invest in yourself first because you really can’t show up for your kiddos in a meaningful way until you take care of yourself. We are naturally prone to doing everything we can for others that sometimes we forget about doing things for ourselves.
6: Create systems
Systems are amazing and so is automation. Putting systems in place such as preparing your lunch for the whole week on Sunday night takes decisions off your plate and really allows you to use that mindpower towards something more productive.
As well, using automation such as email marketing to keep up with your clients or having templates to track tasks, chores, meals, and more completely put your mind at ease that things will get done regardless if you are spending time on them.
When you are a mom in business, the best thing you can have is a support group. Join a few Facebook Groups with other boss moms, sahm, and mompreneurs. This will help you if you have any questions, need support, or just want to know how other moms in your situation are juggling all their responsibilities.
Here are a few Facebook Groups that can help you start creating relationships…
The most important strategy I have for you being a full time parent and entrepreneur is to just take action. No matter how big or small that action is, some type of action is better than none.
After time all those small actions will add up and produce the results you are looking to achieve. Be intentional with your action and make sure everything you do you are doing for a reason. Make sure what you do will push you in the direction you want to go.
Again please check out the More Than A Parent podcast by Caz Gaddis for more tips to help you be your best self in life and business so you can show up for your kids in meaningful ways. Check out the podcast now.
“The Most Fearless Thing You Can Do Is Be Yourself”
Welcome to my little corner of the internet. Here I gather inspiration, share some encouraging ideas, and give insight on how to take action on your goals so you can live your best life.
