PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

 

Carol: Hi! I’m Carol.

Katie: Hi! I’m Katie. Were with Skirt Strategies and you’re here because it’s the monthly leadership tip or the Hot Flash.

Carol: And what are we talking about this month, Katie?

Katie: A very important one that everyone talks about all the time. Work-Life Balance – because if you don’t have it, you’ll be just a little bit crazy.

Carol: And we talk about it, but we don’t necessarily do anything. So we’re here to give you a few direct tips on how to get Work-Life Balance.

Katie:  There’s a friend of mine that says, “You know, it shouldn’t be called work life balance, it should be called work-life juggling.” Because it’s not balancing, it doesn’t balance.

Carol: It doesn’t balance and women have a really hard time with this. And one of the reasons is – because we guilt ourselves into believing that it’s better if we do everything for everybody and don’t kick any time for ourselves and we have to get over that.

Katie: So you’re topic this month – Work-Life Balance. Those of you that are monthly members know that each week you get a chance to go into it just a little bit more and get some tactical skills to go work on immediately.

We will give you each of these big skills – kind of some tips in this video. And then each week, you’ll drill down into one or two of them just a little bit more deeply. So here are some big picture ideas we have for you.

Carol: Overarching. We’d like to call them.

Katie: Overarching for making Work-Life Balance work for you.

Carol: Yes.

Katie: Okay the first one is…

Carol: You tell them.

Katie: Well, the first one I’m thinking – is setting expectations. Because when you have your expectations for yourself set so high – as in you think they should balance, the Work-Life should balance, but they really don’t…

Carol: And they can’t because you have your expectations set so high.

Katie: Yeah. And so you haven’t set high and you constantly disappoint yourself. So that’s not so cool.

Carol: It’s not. I have to say in overall, Katie is much better at Work-Life Balance than I am.

Katie: Thank you.

Carol: Well, you’re very welcome. And you really are. She has a better grasp on how not to make yourself feel totally guilty if you’re putting yourself first. And that’s one of the overarching topics – is put yourself first, put yourself in your schedule and don’t feel guilty about it.

Katie: We should mention that kind of along those lines – is the way that you are creative with your time and the way that you do splurge just a little bit. Where we are today is an indication of that.

Carol: It is.

Katie: Because you’re probably wondering where we are. We’re on Canyon Road in Sta. Fe with fabulous, diverse, artsy background behind us. So there’s a little bit of traffic going buy. But you’ll see that the beauty of Sta. Fe is a wonderful place to have some seamless ideas.

Carol: And creativity and balance. Katie and I have been here all day. She rode the train up – which I think was a nice time for you, a nice quiet time for you. We went to a tea house to work this morning and we’re here on Canyon road just have lunch and we’re working…

Katie: Being selfish is important. If momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.

Carol: Right.

Katie:  If you’ve got your Work-Life Balance and at least the priorities there… And for me, one of them is to put myself first without being completely self-centered. But I find if I’m not just a little bit – if I don’t get my exercise, whatever yours might be for you, whatever that priority is for you, how do you set that time aside, make it for yourself and then protect it?

Carol: Yes.

Katie: Because think of this. It amazes me that we might have a dentist appointment from 1:00 to 2:00 on Tuesday. We have it on our schedule. We set it aside, we protect it, we turn off our phone for it, but we won’t do that for time for ourselves.

Carol: It’s crazy.

Katie: Because we feel we guilt ourselves into thinking that it’s too selfish to do that. Don’t do that.

Second or third tip – wherever we are on the line now – which is my part of sanity. If I don’t say half way saying, I don’t know what I’m thinking about. This is simple, but I saw a bumper sticker the other day that…

Carol: Fabulous tip.

Katie: There’s more to it than just…

Carol: And we’ll go into it a little bit more. But in your day, when it starts getting just a little bit crazy and you don’t think you can get it all done, take a deep breath, come back to reality, focus on the now, stop thinking about the future, stop thinking about the past…

Katie: Stop thinking.

Carol: Focus on the now and breathe and realize you can get it all done.

Katie: Real life support groups. Many, many women tell me that what works for them is to have human interaction. Other women – of course we know that the groups that we’re in that are women only, have such a different level or rich conversations than the next groups just because when we’re all together and it’s women, you’ll start getting into how you sense, how you feel, things are important to you, the meaning of life. That might not necessarily happen in the next group. Many mastermind groups, women support groups, women who are single mothers that work groups, whatever it might be for you. Do you belong to one?

Carol: Right.

Katie: That’s a great promoter of Work-Life balance.

Carol: Yes. Absolutely! Flowers – send yourself flowers, if you don’t have somebody else to send them too. And every time you walk by them, think about… stop and smell the roses.

Katie: Well, the reason behind those – somebody, actually a couple of three different women when we asked them what your Work-Life Balance does for you? How do you keep yours maintained?

Several of them said they have flowers around because for them, although it’s a beautiful way of setting an atmosphere around you, it gives them a regular reminder that’s pretty, light, nice environment, but it serves a bigger purpose. It reminds them of their Work-Life Balance.

And then let’s just hit on maybe one more and wrap it up for the month and get folks a reminder for their Monday Morning Detox.

Carol: Yes. [Unintelligible][0:06:14.5] Don’t forget to think about the bigger picture. So, often we get caught up in the details, caught up in the weights, caught up in the little details of everything that we forget to think about, the big picture and are we actually doing the work that it takes to get to the big picture?

Katie: Most of this goes back to how well you have your purpose and your vision in life clear in front of you. And we’ve all gone through exercises – many of us have, where we take the time to set it. But the real beauty in being able to incorporate it into your daily life is to make it happen regularly.

Carol: Well, and talk a little bit about Skirt Strategies because this is something we do every Monday morning – we have a Monday Morning Detox.

Katie: That’s why it is important – we have a built-in Monday Morning Detox. So even though all of the above that we’ve talked about might not be rocket science to you, you know that it’s important you and you’ve got to have something to hold you accountable – whether it’s yourself or another system like being a member at Skirt Strategies to keep it in the forefront of what’s important. Monday Morning Detox does that – focuses you on the week, gives you a time to breathe and set an intent. Oh! Such a good idea!

Carol: It really is.

Katie: So let’s leave it there.

Carol: Okay. Perfect!

Katie: Tell us what the book is this month – that fits right into Work-Life Balance.

Carol: The book is The Four Hour Work Week and it’s a fun book written by a gentleman who he swears he can do everything he has to do in four hours and he’s really geared his life to do that.

So take some time to read that. You’re not going to be able to do all of it. Necessarily if you can, more power to you. But it really gives you some great tips on how to pair back all of the demands of work and not be so demanding at work.

Katie: Thrilled to be here. And by the way, I’m on a step.

Carol: I know! We’re finally the same height.

Katie: I like it! It makes it easier for recording. Great! Have a great month, everyone. Those of you that are members, look for your weekly audios and your Monday Morning Detox.

Carol: Absolutely.

Katie: Okay. Good. See you next time!

Carol: Bye, bye.

 

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