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Balancing your Work and Family life as a Woman – a couple of tips from Born Furniture

At Born Furniture we celebrate women during the month of August. Because we care we also know that finding a balance between work and family can be a challenge. So we decided to give you a couple of tips and tricks.

This is something that most of us find difficult, however it is an achievable concept. If you do meet someone who has it all figured out, chances are they will be back at it again in a year’s time. Trying to schedule an equal number of hours for each of your various work and personal activities is usually unrewarding and unrealistic. You need to work hard in order to achieve your personal and/or family goals. The one cannot survive without the other. You cannot get the full value from life without BOTH Achievement and Enjoyment.

The right balance for you when you are single will be different when you marry, or if you have children. It will also be difficult when you start a new career versus when you are nearing retirement. Our work and family circumstances vary significantly. Personal, family and work needs vary and are ever-changing, so you have to be more flexible. Being a full-time working parent can lead to feelings of guilt and stress because of divided attention between work and family.

The key is to develop creative solutions as you approach the challenges of balancing the responsibilities and joys of your many roles. Work life balance is something most parents really crave. Recent surveys reveal that many parents are eager to make changes so they can work more flexibly, even if it affects their pay. They do this because they know that having time with their children is important. This leaves us with the question; What can we do to attain the best possible from both worlds? Unfortunately, there is no formula to make this easier. Furthermore, your hierarchy of values will change as you move through the different phases of your life. These are merely guidelines and will make you feel better one way or another by practicing different ideas as well as thought processes.

Write down your hierarchy of values: Write down your values, from the highest to the lowest. This will enable you to see what is most important and least important to you. This will turn your focus towards certain values or show your weakness and where you should improve. For example, is your friends and/or your PlayStation more important than your family or your business. Woman and men’s values will vary as we are built differently. Limit time-wasting activities and people.

Meditate and create time for yourself: Being a good parent, partner and professional means being good to yourself first. Most of the time, when faced with challenging situations, the difficulty is in thinking what will I do. Also comparing it with past experiences or comparing it with other’s experiences. Don’t, these are the hurdles that we create for ourselves. Life is too complicated to be a perfectionist. We are all human and do not own Super Man’s genes. Meditate often (calming your mind) and revisit your written hierarchy of values.

Make one night your special night (If you have children and/or only married.) Movie night, Lego night or computer game night. Whatever they fancy. Few moms and dads can join in with their children’s post-school fun and games every evening. However, your children will love to know that there’s one night when everything stops, just for them.

Achieve an Integrated life: Keep things in perspective. Create harmony in your life, a mixture of work, family and friends. Remember there is no single formula for balancing work and family. It is a personal decision how one combines your spouse, children and career. Remember to divide your time. All of these different masks that we wear require a certain amount of attention. It is up to you to get to know what is more important than the other and make it work.

The Born Team

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