I typically direct my discussions towards moms or women in general but please know that my advice is applicable to everyone. Tailor your listening experience to fit you, whether you are a woman or man, young or old, parent or no kids. Working mom, stay at home mom, single and loving it, grandparent, retired; these are a few of the labels we can be identified with. Each of those labels comes with a stereotypical description of people who have it all and are making life work with a smile and have energy left over. I’m here to tell you that is far from the usual case. Each of you are different individuals and what makes life good for one person, may not work for another. The only way to know if you are doing it right is if you can say that you are happy, that you feel centered and mostly at peace with your life (you might not like all day, every day, but you should certainly love most!!).

One thing you need to realize is that you might not be able to do it alone. Everyone has a skillset of things that they are good at and love to do. When it comes to that part of their life, they are rockin’ it and feeling empowered too. Then there are the areas of your life that you really dislike, or you don’t know how or even want to know how to do something that needs to be done. It may be time to ask for help in those areas.

Several things might keep you from seeking help.

Guilt: You do not need to feel guilty. Every professional uses the resources available to them to handle the parts of the job not related to their specialty.

Finances: Spending money for services that you dislike, don’t have time for or are not skilled at may be necessary for you to achieve your goals. There is also the possibility that you can trade services with someone.

Pride: Many people think that “others don’t need help, why should I”. They are different people with different needs, responsibilities and abilities. No two people are the same, so what one person needs is not relevant to what you need.

Today I bring you an interview with someone who is making life work, her way. She is utilizing her passion for cooking to offer a service that those who live in her area can take advantage of. Her company, Soup-er Delivery, offers made from scratch soup and bread delivered to your home.

By utilizing Dana’s services you can have time to sit down and have family time with a healthy dinner that you didn’t have to take time cooking.

Dana is making her life work her way. She and her husband are raising 3 children and all of them have busy schedules. In order for them to eat together, dinner is usually served after 8:00.

But even if schedules make that impossible, she takes time to enjoy the meal with whichever family members are there and she realizes that family time outside is more important than getting the dishes done right away.

A trip to Israel with a women’s’ group helped her to redefine herself. She realized that she had to remember how to be independent.

Dana has a successful business, she is happy, centered and at peace with her life and she is doing it her way.

Journaling Questions:

1. What are the activities you seem to be fighting with during the week (kid run around, house cleaning, laundry, cooking)? Write down everything you can think of…

2. Once you nail down the more difficult tasks in the week I want you to put reason behind the fight (time barriers, dislike of the activity, maybe it doesn’t come easy to you). You should now have a list of weekly or monthly activities that you are fighting and a reason tied to the activity.

3. If money or time was not an object, what would be solutions to your fight? ( a simple example is hire a cleaning company for the weekly clean up… a little more difficult would look more like hiring a life coach to help organize your life… there is no right solution, just start naming a few)

Homework:

Goal setting will always be part of your homework. Once a week write down your focus or goals for the week. Every Friday reassess them, tweak them or change them to fit your needs. It’s “Your journey, your way”.

Links:

Lindsey House:

www.healthaccountabilitycoach.com

www.facebook.com/houselifestyles

Direction Not Perfection, Accountability and Coaching from your Wine-loving Dietitian

https://braughlerbooks.com/store/books/direction-not-perfection