When you have a successful career as well as a family, sometimes you’ll begin to have a nagging feeling that you should be doing more for one or the other. Perhaps you have to stay late and work extra hours for a few weeks or your child gets sick and you have to stay home with them. Either of these situations can start you on the path towards becoming overwhelmed with guilt for “abandoning” one aspect of your life for the other.
The simple fact is that these things happen in everyone’s life and there is really nothing you or anyone else can do to help it so, you shouldn’t feel guilty. But, I know how difficult it is to realize that when you are stuck in the mire of an epic guilt trip.
Here are several things you can do to help pull yourself out of this slump and rediscover the balance between work and the rest of your life.
Learn to look at the big picture. When we start feeling guilty about the imbalance of our lives, we start focusing on the little things that prove we’re either not working hard enough or a “bad parent.” When this starts happening, remember to zoom out from the minutia and look at your overall life. Sure, this week you’ve had to stay late, but you had a wonderful family vacation a couple months ago. In the big picture, you’re both a great parent and a successful businessperson.
Use your calendar. If you feel that your life is getting seriously out of balance, then use the easiest tool available: your calendar. Schedule “work time” and “play time” and stick to the schedule. Guilt can’t touch you when you’re sticking to a schedule that you created to keep balance in your life.
Give yourself a break. Newsflash: You’re human! As a human being, you’re going to make mistakes and that’s OK. When you start feeling overwhelmed with guilt because you can’t seem to balance life with work, just cut yourself some slack, because I guarantee you that almost everyone else in your life will give you a break. Sometimes we’re the only person that won’t give ourselves a little leeway. When you can accept that things are a little out of balance right now, you’ll find that things will work themselves out and balance pretty quickly.
