It’s always at this time of year that I get a little reflective in the business. Before I start thinking about what it is in store for the following year, and I imagine what topics I will be writing about, I take some time to look at the words that have passed through my fingertips over the earlier 12 months. Whilst I hope that you have been keeping up to date with my career and balance musing, there is always the rare chance that you haven’t had the chance to catch up every week! So with that in mind, I’m going to share this week my 2021 blog round-up; a combination of the ones that touched my heart when I wrote them, with the ones that have been the most read (stats wise). Will your favourite be included?
You are never too busy for coaching
We have all been there. Excited and motivated to make a change; to have a smooth return to work, take the next step in your career or get a handle on your work-life balance. Maybe you are investing yourself, or you have an employer who is providing the resource for you. So, you engage a coach or sign up for a course. Then, before you know it, you are postponing your sessions or removing your allocated training time from your diary. Why? Well, it’s simple. You are just too busy. You have too much on. That self-development time can wait. Well, today I’m going to explain why you are never too busy for coaching.
Self-care, like so many other things, has become commercialised, with advertisements telling you that it can only be achieved if you buy product A or service B. I agree that it’s essential for physical and mental wellbeing that you carve out some time for rest. But the implementation is often very different! Self-care is impossible to achieve if you don’t have boundaries! Boundaries for your time, energy, attention, effort, money and emotions. However, many of us can’t identify what these boundaries are, let alone how to hold them in place!
How a change in perspective can change your career
We are a combination of our life experiences to date, our values, our personalities and our circumstances. It is no surprise that we all get stuck in our ways. Life, especially when you are a parent, can be continually moving from one to-do list to another, instinctively responding to what comes up next. Our days are filled with habits, and we get settled in how things are done. We hang around with the same people, read similar types of books, watch the same news, and have similar conversations. We tell ourselves stories about who we are, what we are capable of, and this plays a huge part in not only what our goals are, but how we approach them.
Why you need to worry constructively
Worry takes up an awful lot of time. However much you try to push it away, it sits, lurking just at the back of your brain. The level of emotional energy it takes to stop it from interfering with your day-to-day life is hard to quantify, but very noticeable. But what if you took a new approach. Rather than avoiding the issue or situation that is causing you concern, you schedule some time to worry. Rather than finding ways to avoid your concern, you craft out opportunities to constructively worry?
Do Dads need return to work coaching too?
There is still a deep-seated assumption about who return to work coaching is for. It doesn’t matter how targeted I think I am with my marketing, and how wide the conversations are about my coaching support, I am regularly described as a return-to-work coach for Mums. There are so many gendered assumptions that exist around the roles of Mums and Dads, and the expectations about how parenthood may impact each person. I was recently asked, “Do Dads need return to work coaching too?” My simple answer was “Yes!”. In this blog, I will give you a longer answer.
Seven quick ways to stop feeling overwhelmed
I’ve always found careers, skills and the reasons why people “click” at work fascinating, but my desire to help with balance really came to the forefront when I became a parent in 2006. All of a sudden, my time wasn’t my own, my responsibilities had shifted and I had a whole host of things to consider that has never crossed my mind before. My mental load grew beyond what I thought I was capable of; I was fascinated to see how I could make this work, and still feel fulfilled in my work and life. 15 years later I’m sitting at the helm of The Balance Collective, with two daughters, two cats, one husband and a house then never stops needed stuff done to it. I have somehow become a full-blown adult.
In my humble opinion, parents are superheroes; they balance a list of duties as long as their arm, putting their hearts on their sleeves whilst often putting their own needs at the bottom of their to-do list. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you will know how important it is for our mental well-being to build in daily activities that support and build our resilience, so when things really hit the fan, you have the resources in place to bounce back. To work on this, the first step is an exercise in self-awareness, then you need to be able to create and use a useful ta-da list!
These seven blogs represent an evolution over 2021; the things that my clients needed, and at times, what worked for me during a turbulent year. I hope, for those that read them on the week they published, you found the insight useful and applied it to your life to create a career to enjoy. For those that are reading these for the first time, please cherry-pick from each of them a nugget of support that is fitting for your life as it is right now.
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Clara Wilcox is a straight talking, practical and experienced coach helping clients navigate the tricky waters of returning to work, career changes and professional development. The Balance Collective is a social enterprise focused on improving the lives of parents, by working together to build inner confidence and promote a healthy work/life balance.
