Experts agree that balance is an essential piece to a sustainable career, and ensures fulfillment within all areas of life. So how do they do it?
Brendon Burchard, a World-leading Performance Life Coach says: ”People get work-life balance wrong all the time. It’s not about equalizing or balancing HOURS across things. Instead, try to balance happiness, harmony or progress in your major life categories. Not hours to create harmony.”
The key to creating balance as a CEO is to shift your mindset from balance being one of equal parts in your life. This simple perspective shift and the adoption of becoming fully present with each task you do, whether it be at work, playing with the kids or taking a walk by the ocean – being there without distractions will immediately cultivate more harmony in your day.
Redefining Your Relationship With Rest
Female CEO’s are now redefining what it means to climb the ladder of success. For many women with ambition, rest has been viewed as lazy, not necessary and ultimately something that will take away from manifesting the level of achievement they aspire to reach. In reality however, rest provides the foundation for the exponential growth evident in successful Business Women all over the globe today.
As a Sacred Storyteller and the owner and CEO of the award winning publishing company AMA Publishing, Adriana Monique Alvarez is balancing being a Mother among her professional endeavors. Redefining her relationship to rest has been a critical step in holistically maintaining her success. She shares: “Rest brings a woman back into harmony. Restoring her ability to perform at optimal levels and achieve more in less time. When women are well rested, they are more creative and are magnetic to their desires.”
Her 4-step Checklist to cultivate balance and redefine your relationship to rest:
1. Reflect: I get quiet every morning and ask myself if this is the life I want and if it’s not, I make adjustments.
2. Rest: I take 3-4 days off each week from serving people and solving problems.
3. Dates: I go on dates with my husband regularly and I plan fun activities with my boys.
4. Create: I use my imagination and creativity in cooking, coloring, and writing everyday.
Overcoming The Unimportant Tasks
Dana Kay, CEO and Mother to a child with ADHD, has come to live by the quote from Sadguru: “There is no such thing as work-life balance – it is all life. The balance has to be within you.” This has meant being intentional with her time, clear with her boundaries and upskilling when it comes to learning how to optimally delegate to ensure the time invested in her work, allows space for what is most important to her – the people in her life.
Learning how to overcome the urge to complete unimportant tasks is one of the biggest hurdles that women in particular face, especially for those accustomed to climbing the outdated success ladder, grounded in masculine ideologies and methodologies.
Her 4-step Strategy to cultivating balance and releasing the unimportant tasks:
1. Remind yourself of all the things in your life that are more important than deadlines.
2. Put boundaries in place to ensure that the most important things in your life don’t get overlooked because of something less important that just feels more urgent.
3. Turn off your phone and computer when it is Family Time.
4. Take intentional time off from work, instead of being forced to step away.
Honoring Your Boundaries
Boundaries are anchors of respect, for yourself, for your craft and for others. They have become a non-negotiable in Shar Moore’s toolkit for cultivating balance between her family life, and being the Founder of YMag® and Feminessence®.
“Connecting to my 5 senses is an important way to remain anchored in the present moment for me. This is how I know if I am honoring my boundaries or not. What can I see, hear, touch, smell and feel in this moment?”
As a TEDx Speaker, TV Talkshow Host, and Multi-International Award-Winning Mentor, Shar knows a thing or two about choosing to live a consciously present life. Boundaries have been the secret ingredient to cultivating that reality.
Her 4-part Toolkit to honor your boundaries and bring meaning to life
1. Tap into your senses; this stops your mind from wandering off and constantly living in the future.
2. Define your work space and life space; create firm boundaries around leaving work at work and living life when at home.
3. Create experiences of intimate gatherings with family and friends, with no phones, to give your personal life deep meaning.
4. Take yourself on a Date-Afternoon once a week; finish work early, and take the afternoon for yourself.
“The world will go on without me tied to my desk from dawn till dusk. This ‘me-time’ is an essential part of my toolkit!” – Shar Moore.
Article by Shannon Rose