Work Life Balance Tips For Leaders.

Finding "balance" is a huge player in our company when dealing with clients. We help with leadership development, so most leaders really struggle when it comes to what balance even means, let alone "finding it".

Operating a business for over a decade has taught me 2 things: 

1 - Just as life has seasons, so does business and the people in it. 

2 - Balance has less to do with being at the center of the scale, and more to do with learning how to ebb and flow with more flexibility when the scale tips, because the only guarantee is that the scale WILL tip.

So now, instead of fighting to bring "balance", I learn how to stay centered no matter how sideways life gets. We cannot control outside factors or people. What we can control is our own emotions, actions, reactions and responses. Change, struggle and hardship are a given in life so how will you navigate that? What I have found to be helpful is releasing the expectation that things will be easy and leaning into being flexible as life shifts.

Will it always be hard? No, but resisting difficulty doesn't mean you avoid it. It's quite the opposite, it almost makes difficulty feel worse. Lean in, push through it and learn how you can potentially make things go smoother for the next wave of difficulty.

“How can I lean into difficulty when it causes so much overwhelm?”

Good question. There’s no guarantee that things will not be overwhelming. So instead of making it a goal to eliminate overwhelm, how can you help support your nervous system during difficult times?

I’ll tell you a few things that help me, but before I tell you my secrets, here's some context.

I’ve struggled with anxiety since I was a teenager. I did not know what it was called at the time, because that was still the era of “struggle in silence”. Plus, knowledge and resources were not as easily accessible as they are now.

So I ultimately saw this anxiousness as I wasn’t “normal”. Because of that, I had to really dig into solutions that did not put a giant spotlight on me. I started tapping into my body and becoming aware.

AA says the first step to recovery is admittance right? They are spot on. After I started becoming aware of those moments of anxiousness, I could then figure out a few different techniques through testing, of what helped the most.

Breathwork was one of the biggest support systems to ease my anxiety (aka overwhelm). Again, could I control my life and what was happening around me? No. But I can figure out how to control my own little world.

I learned box breathing from a psychology book - crazy right? Box breathing is when you inhale, hold your breath and exhale all for the same amount of time.

Inhale for 3, hold for 3, exhale for 3, hold for 3 and repeat. It says to close your eyes and draw a box as you do it. This causes your snowball thoughts to stop, allowing you enough time to redirect those thoughts and course correct.

My second tool that helps support me through overwhelm is preparedness. Most people do not stay in prep long enough, especially my leaders. We are those people who dive head in, “just do it” type of people which is an amazing quality to have in some circumstances but not all.

The longer I prepare for a season of overwhelm, the more confident and calm I feel when it pops up.

Think of it as a survival guide to not-so-desirable situations. “Winging it” doesn’t support your nervous system in times of overwhelm, learned that the hard way!

My third and last tool for you is, the power of “no”. I know we’ve talked about this before if you are a returning leader to our blogs, but I can’t stress the importance of boundary setting enough.

Boundaries are the kindest thing we can do for others and ourselves.

Sometimes we don’t have the luxury of saying no, right? When that happens fall on your other 2 tools. Can I prepare? When can I take a moment to breathe and reset?

Prioritize these 3 things to figure out that daily ebb and flow through life, your “balancing” act!

Take a moment right now to relax your shoulders, unclench your jaw, deep breath in and close your eyes…exhale.

You’ve got this!

Coach V