When you work in corporate, creating work-life boundaries is a must. You don't take your work home with you, nor do you take your home life to work. You share what you choose to share when you need to share it and you can't always react to situations the way you normally would in a home setting because, well, you can get FIRED (which is not a good thing). You may share more of yourself with your close co-workers, but the line is drawn in different places in the sand based on who the person is and what role he or she plays in your "work life". A close female co-worker, was one of the first people to find out I was pregnant. However, a discussion about cord blood storage with my male boss and a male co-worker, both whose wives had recently had babies, was beyond uncomfortable because what was "chump change" to them was a fortune for me on my not-too-great salary. While I was pretty guilty of bringing work home with me (stress, anger, frustration, etc.), I very rarely brought my home life to work - unless I had to. Like when I had to announce my dad's cancer diagnosis or my pregnancy in order to get my FMLA leave. And, I rarely ever swore at work, nor did I talk back without first considering the consequences to my job if I did. Transitioning from this corporate mindset has without a doubt been the most difficult thing for me during this journey into entrepreneurship. Those boundaries I built in the name of professionalism became walls that now box me in as an entrepreneur. As a result, I always overthink every communication I make in my brave new world. I hold a lot back in an effort to be "professional". What I've realized is that doing so has been causing me to be at a disadvantage in connecting authentically and creating new, healthy boundaries for MY business. Do you face this situation as you work to build your business? How do you share more of yourself? If you haven't been, what's one thing you can do today to chip away at that wall?
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Every year gives us 525,600 minutes.
It's what we choose to do with them that matters. I don't know about you, but I need to spend more of my minutes enjoying life and appreciating the small things like my son's smiles, my country view, journaling and, of course, Zumba. I've been working so hard the past few weeks on evolving my business that I haven't been keeping up with my self care. And, even though I'm happier professionally than I've ever been, I've noticed a restlessness. One born of not taking precious minutes for myself. To appreciate everything I have in front of me. So, treat each minute as a journey. And enjoy the ride. How will you measure 2017 in your life? #rent #insightfulbizdev #525600 #littlethings #selfcare ARE YOU DEFYING GRAVITY?I have a confession: I hate The Wizard of Oz. With a passion. I don't even know why. It just doesn't resonate with me. So that was why I hesitated to go see Wicked when it was on tour a few years ago. But my friends asked me and I'd never been to the theater (unless you count high school musicals), so I agreed. And you know what... I LOVED IT. Everything about the story in Wicked captivated me. It made me see The Wizard of Oz in a whole new light. Turned the whole plot upside down for me. (I still hate it, but I appreciate it in a different way now.) Elphaba tried so hard to fit in even though she was different. It was only when she embraced that what made her different made her uniquely special that she began to fly. She wasn't "wicked", she was just sick of playing by the rules of someone else's game. When you try to conform to what society expects of you, you lose yourself in the process. You're uncomfortable in your skin, green or not. Why wear boring conservative pantsuits when you can rock a v-neck tee, skinny leg dress pants and a Chico's jacket and be taken just as seriously? Why continue to do what you've always done even when it no longer resonates with you when you can take those skills and apply them in a way that brings you joy? Why hide out by the food table at that networking event when you really want to be mingling? We all deserve a chance to fly. Even if we're afraid of being up so high. Flying into the unknown is scary, but it can offer us a freedom we've never dreamed existed. So go. And don't let anyone bring you down. |
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