How to Maintain Work-Life Balance (When Life is Nuts).

“The only way around is through.”

~ Robert Frost

It’s a busy time of year, and when the proverbial sh*t is hitting the fan, sometimes the only this we can do is square our shoulders and ride out the sh*t storm!

Yup, when life gets nuts, you may need a different approach to work-life balance. First step, dig in and get through to-do.

Second, watch this week’s video below to hear ideas for maintaining work-life balance (or not) through the craziness. Or, read the transcript that follows and then #DTFW (do the freakin’ work)!

Hey, Michelle Cederberg here, coming to you from Beautiful Fort St. John, B.C. on a lovely sunny, October afternoon. I am here presenting at a health and safety conference for the city of Fort St. John, great group of people. I actually had a whole bunch of firefighters in my audience, so that was kind of fun.

I’m here today to talk to you about busy. I don’t know about you, but when fall hits it seems like life ramps up a few notches. Your kids are going back to school, everybody’s back from holidays, work seems to get a little busier. For me as a speaker, I’m back on the road. I was busy through all of September, I’m on the road a lot through October, and it seems to be continuing through November.

How the heck do you maintain work/life balance, and some sense of sanity when life is hitting you from all sides? Sometimes, you just gotta surrender and do the freaking work.

Sometimes, you have to say that maybe work/life balance is going to have to ease back a little bit, or stop entirely while you hammer through to-do. I don’t want you for a second to think I’m saying don’t prioritize self care, don’t do the things you need to do to take care of yourselves, ’cause I’m absolutely not saying that. But, sometimes when life is busy, we have to honor busy.

Get that stuff done, and do the bare minimum that you need in order to survive. In bare minimum, I think the number one thing that we need to do when life is hitting us from all sides, is to make sure we’re getting enough sleep, that is the first one. Let your body restore, because when that happens, your brain and your body are going to help you cope with the stress far, far better.

Also, add in movement (in small steps). Now, if your regular movement is to go to the gym all the time, or to head out for a long run, or to do something more intense. How about back off on that a bit while you’re under the gun? I had an airport day yesterday, where my flights were delayed three and a half hours in Calgary, and then I got bumped to a later flight in Vancouver. I did a lot of airport walking yesterday. It was all that I could do, but it also kept my sanity. Slower, shorter, whatever. I got some movement, and it really helped me stay clear.

Busy happens. Busy is not an excuse to drop ‘everything self-care’, but it is a reminder that sometimes we need to honor that shit needs to get done. Yeah, I said that.

Sometimes we just have to give ourselves the time to crush the to-do list, and back off on the things that we need to do for ourselves. Just a bit. Get your sleep, back up off on exercise, and absolutely, absolutely make sure that you are feeding your body what it needs.

It’s how your body works. You are capable of great things if you allow yourself to do them. In the busyness that is fall, crush those goals, create self care in a way that you can manage. When those moments open up when you have achieved some of your goals, celebrate them, and then give yourself a little more self care. It’s how your body works, it’s how we work.

Until next time, I am Michelle Cederberg reminding you that you got one chance to do this life good, I say dare to live it big.

To learn more about my new Success-Energy Strategy Sessions and how to bring me into your organization reach out to me and make autumn awesome, personally and professionally with The Success-Energy Equation!

Michelle Cederberg, CSP, MKin, BA Psyc
CEP, CPCC, ORSC

Empowering today’s dreamers, leaders and go-getters to create the life and career they want.

www.michellecederberg.com
403-850-5589