Melt The Glass Ceiling
Are you a career woman? Do you work in a male dominated workplace? In Melt The Glass Ceiling, your career coach, Lisa Liszcz, will share tips and strategies on developing the career of your dreams. New episodes drop each week.
Melt The Glass Ceiling
Master Your Work-Life Balance During Tough Times
In this this week's episode of Melt the Glass Ceiling, let's tackle the ever-relevant topic of work-life balance. We need to have balance all the time, but especially during a crisis. What if you partner gets sick, you have to travel unexpectedly, or you have weather damage on your home? How do you get everything done?
Let's explore new ideas on how to...
- focus on setting priorities so that you have clear daily plans that are meaningful
- practice extreme self-care to boost your energy and peace
- use the power of saying, "No," to protect your time and energy
- boost your positive self-talk and become your own cheerleader
Then you can take care of your commitments without burning out. Sound good? Listen to learn more.
One more thing...
When life hits the fan, we all need support. Learn about my supportive community of like-minded women professionals and check it out for yourself. I tell you all about it this week. And click here to check out the group.
This episode is a must-listen for anyone striving to maintain equilibrium in today's fast-paced world.
Click here to download your "5 Simple Ways to Set Healthy Boundaries at Work" Tip Sheet.
Want to discuss this episode with other professional women? Join our private Facebook group, and join our chat here.
Hello, this week I was supposed to be talking about finding your next best job for you and your career. I'm not doing that. I am doing something different because my life right now is in the middle of a crisis and my dog is very sick. I love my little dog, penny. Some of you know her, and she is precious. My husband and I travel with her. We don't go anywhere without her. Hardly we miss her when we're not with her. She loves to go to the beach. We take her to the park. We spend our days with her. She is my little buddy and she's sick. She's at the doctor right now. She's getting IV fluids. She was in the hospital and then she was in ICU and then she came home and now she needs a little bit more in clinic care and we're going to pick her up this afternoon.
Speaker 1:But anyway, the last 10 days have been nuts and I've been thinking about what you do when your life gets nuts, when your life gets lifey, and all that because that happens to all of us. So I am going to plan the next best job for you episode for the future, and this week we're talking about having your work-life balance during a crisis, because crises happen, and what I've seen in the last 20 years is that most of us schedule our lives to the limits. We don't have cushion in our lives for crises, for emergencies, for getting sick, for somebody getting sick, and so we're booked out to the limits, right? We have eight hours a day of work, so we schedule ourselves to do what would take 20 hours to get done, and we schedule ourselves, we overschedule ourselves for work and for personal time, and so when something hits the fan, there's no time. There's no time, there's no energy, because there's already no time and no energy, and so we're trying to squeeze a hundred pound schedule into a tiny little teaspoon. And then we get stressed and we get sick, and we get angry and we get frustrated.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about this. Let's talk about developing work-life balance. During a crisis, we usually have to adapt to a crisis, adapt our schedules to a crisis. In the middle of the crisis, we didn't pre-plan. So let's talk about this, and there are some points I'm going to talk about today that you will be able to apply today, starting now, not next week, not next month. Starting now. That will also help you to alleviate overwhelm. So here we go.
Speaker 1:First of all, why do you want to have work-life balance? Everyone I talk to says they would like to have more work-life balance so that they can spend more time on things they want to do, spend more time on their priorities, their health, their life, their interests. But also I have friends whose parents have gotten sick, children, spouses have gotten sick, partners whose parents have gotten sick, children, spouses have gotten sick, partners, friends just have something going on. Maybe their house has been damaged by a hurricane or by crazy weather, which we've had here recently in Houston, and just life gets lifey. How do we provide ourselves with enough structure that we have the balance, that we need to take care of things at work and at home and for ourselves and whatever else is going on when life gets lifey?
Speaker 1:One of the things Johann Wolfgang von said he's a writer, playwright, wrote the play Faust, thought of as one of the greatest and most influential writers in the German language. I like this quote from him Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least. What I like about this is because it speaks to setting priorities, to identifying what really does matter most to you and putting those things first, and that is where we are going to start is by setting priorities. There's a wonderful book I read many years ago by Cheryl Richardson called Take Time for your Life. One of the things that Cheryl Richardson says is that when she's working with her clients, they focus first on removing things from their lives and not achieving goals or focusing on goals and accomplishments. She says it's all about extreme self-care. And when you really want to take time for your life and set priorities, cheryl Richardson says, first you become selfish, then you start arranging your life to reflect your priorities and then you identify and eliminate what drains you.
Speaker 1:So setting priorities is a lot about identifying the things you don't want in your life. Are there tasks, are there responsibilities, are there relationships, are there burdens that you don't want in your life? One of the things you can do to help set your priorities is to identify those things you don't want in your life and let's get rid of them. Let's minimize them or get them entirely out of your life. If you identify what you do want in your life, what you want your life to look like, what you want your life to be about, what you want to accomplish, someone else will identify that for you and they will recruit you into their agenda and their plans and then pretty soon you're down a road that you never chose. So first of all, we need to set our priorities. That's the first step you're going to do to help you have work-life balance.
Speaker 1:If you're not clear on your priorities, it's so easy to get dragged into overwhelm because you say yes to everything and no to nothing. And that brings us to point number two, tip number two you gotta say no. I have a client I'm working with right now and we've set a goal for her that she is going to say no to at least three requests per day. I really like this goal because you can start slow. You can say no to one thing a day or no to three things a week, but start somewhere, start saying no. Some of the ways to identify things you're going to say no to are you can ask yourself does this really require me to do it? Does it require my expertise? And if it doesn't say no, somebody else can do it. It may even be an opportunity for learning, growth, development and visibility for somebody else. Maybe it's a learning opportunity, but you say no.
Speaker 1:Protect your time, protect your energy, because you need that time and energy for the things that you do want to do. Maybe you want to build a stronger relationship with your partner, or with your children, or with a friend. Maybe you want to start a new hobby gardening, writing, painting, exercise, tennis, yoga. Whatever it is you want to do, you've got to make room for those things. You make room for those things by saying no. By saying no to some things, you get to say yes to some even better things and things that add more meaning to your life. So you got to say no.
Speaker 1:The number one thing I hear from my clients when we talk about saying no is I don't want to disappoint people. I want people to like me. I'm a people pleaser. I can't help it. People need me, people rely on me. This is one of the ways that I earn credibility and respect. You know what? Stop it. Yes, you have special skills and abilities that people depend on you for, but if you're doing things that somebody else could do, you need to stop it.
Speaker 1:My download for you today is called Five Simple Ways to Set Healthy Work Boundaries, and in that download there are some examples of some powerful but professional and polite ways to say no. So take a look at that. Get that. Download the link is in the show notes and read through it. There's some other really great recommendations about setting boundaries at work, but I want you to read through that section that gives you some very specific examples of ways that you can say no and not seem like a butthead Practice saying these things. Read them over and over again until they just fly off of your tongue so that it's easy to say and you don't have to think about it and it doesn't feel awkward. You want it to just fly off your tongue. So download that and read those examples over and over again.
Speaker 1:Okay, tip number three your self-talk. So many of us have negative self-talk. That really undermines our ability to create balance in our lives. If you don't have self-talk that makes you feel good about saying no and protecting your boundaries and supporting yourself by protecting your priorities, then we need to work on your self-talk. Tell yourself I deserve this. This is important. This adds meaning to my life. Remind yourself that by living your dreams, living your aspirations, this helps you to have a successful life and be really good at the things you are here to do. Your life is not just about serving others and taking care of others. Your life is about living your purpose and your meaning, and you need time and resources and clarity on what that is, and you deserve that. That is important for you, it's important for all the people around you and it's important for the universe and the greater good, and I want you to include these ideas in your self-talk. Tell yourself I deserve this. This is important for me, this is important for the greater good. That I take time to whatever do yoga, take up a craft, learn a new language Remember to tell yourself that this is important not just for you, but for all the people that you love and all of the people you care about and the people you are responsible to.
Speaker 1:There's a speaker I really like who talks about going into her private space for an hour every day and spending time in solitude. She might journal, she might listen to music, she might read something inspiring, and she says that this makes her a better mother, a better employee, a better colleague, a better neighbor, a better community service person. And it's true when we take care of ourselves, we're better at everything we're here to do. The speaker I'm thinking about she says that she tells her husband and her children you need to be thanking me for taking that time for myself every day, because I'm a better mother and I'm a better partner for doing it. This is powerful self-talk. This is not just an important message for the people around you. This is important self-talk. Give yourself a little pep talk. Tell yourself you're doing this for yourself and for all of the people that you love.
Speaker 1:Do you have a list of affirmations that you recite to yourself regularly? I know this is such a cringy practice, but the impact that it makes with my clients and that it has made in my life has been phenomenal. You need a list of powerful affirmations designed for a professional woman. I cannot even tell you the impact that this has made on my confidence to define and protect my boundaries and I see it over and over again with my clients. My clients really push back on reciting their affirmations, but it is such a powerful tool and it makes a big change in people's lives, and it's made a big change in my life. So use affirmations.
Speaker 1:I grew up in a very negative household where criticism was rampant. This led me to developing very negative self-talk that undermined my confidence and my ability to succeed. One way that I overcame this predisposition was by reciting affirmations consistently and religiously. If you would like my list of 10 affirmations for professional women, send me a DM and I will send you my list. I want you to be successful as quickly as possible, but I don't want you to be burned out, overwhelmed and stressed. I want you to have success with joy. I want you to feel successful and proud of yourself. I want you to reach your potential, but I want you to do it while you're being happy, and the only way that you can do that is by creating balance in your life. That you need during crisis and all the time.
Speaker 1:So use these tips, set your priorities, learn to say no, to protect your boundaries and practice positive self-talk. This is for you, it's for the people you love and it's for the greater good. Okay, next week I will talk about the next best job for you and how you can identify that and get clarity. In the meantime, I'm going to ask you to do two things Download my five simple ways to set healthy work boundaries, because that's such a big part of creating work-life balance. I want you to use those tips. All five might not work for you, but I bet a couple of them will.
Speaker 1:The link is in the show notes. And I have one other request of you You're going to download that freebie. And then also, I would love to hear from you what is a topic you would like for me to give you some tips on. What is your biggest challenge at work right now? Send me a message, the link is in the show notes and I'll address it on a podcast. I may even do a bonus episode just to address your special challenge. Maybe it's a challenge with not being visible or not getting assignments that you want, or you have a tense relationship with a colleague or your boss. Send me a message the link is in the show notes and tell me what is your biggest challenge at work right now.
Speaker 1:I cannot wait to hear what it is and if you have any questions about this episode or anything else, wait to hear what it is and if you have any questions about this episode or anything else, send me a message. The link is in the show notes. Or join my private Facebook group for professional women. I'm in there every day answering people's questions and we have great discussions in there. I put the link to the Facebook group for professional women working in corporate in the show notes. Click on it and check it out. I hope to see you in there. Thank you for listening and have a great week. Now go melt the glass ceiling.
