7 Tips to Help Women Achieve Balance in Their Lives

At Least It Sounds Easy

Being a mother was never easy – just ask your mother. Women today continue to disproportionately bear the responsibilities of domestic work and childcare, according to a California Women’s Law Center report. For working moms, the confluence of family, household and work-related obligations pull them in multiple directions with competing demands on their time and conflicting priorities, says Natalie Gahrmann, owner of N-R-G Coaching Associates and author of Succeeding as a Super Busy Parent.

“Women are acculturated from an early age to neglect their own needs in order to please others,” adds Encino-based psychotherapist Judith M. Harris, who counsels high-achieving mothers in professional careers. “It becomes a problem when they try to do this on the job, at home and in a marriage,” she says. But whether working or not, endless tasks and the desire to be the best mothers and wives they can be often leave women exhausted, frustrated, and with a sense of lost identity.

To avoid these pitfalls, experts recommend the following tips to help women achieve balance in their lives:

• Prioritize and set limits. Women take on too much to prove they are capable, says Harris. By determining your priorities, you can decide what is truly important and what to give up. Don’t be afraid to say “no” if there is too much on your plate.

•  Identify all options to make the best choices. Achieving a successful life balance means making choices about work, childcare, values, and lifestyle. The decisions women make allow them to integrate motherhood into their lives without giving up what is important to us, according to author Sheryl Gurrentz. Guilt is the outcome of discomfort with choices made. Gurrentz encourages women to explore all possibilities, not just those that are immediately apparent. When women choose correctly, they eliminate guilt and end up happier, more productive and better mothers.

• Don’t be a perfectionist. Seeking perfection in every endeavor is futile. For tasks that are not critical, putting in 75 percent effort is acceptable.