Why Zorro may be your answer to life balance as a mom
How do you achieve life balance when there are so many things to do? Zorro might have your secret.
I can barely breathe. I don’t know what to do first.
My kids are home from school, and yet I want to write a post as well as wrap, send and mail a few gifts.
And yet, everything else seems to be more important.
“MOO-OOOM, I can’t find my belt,” yells my daughter from her room.
I don’t know where your belt is. You need to find your belt.
I opened the drawer underneath my sink and grabbed the purple brush to tame my own hair.
“Mom,” my son now. “I’m hungry.”
“You can go get a banana.”
“No, I don’t want a banana.”
Crying. Tears.
I take a deep breath. This day has the potential to drive me insane if I don’t figure out something.
READ: How to Say No to Protect Your Goals
Time is such a bastard.
How do we balance it all? Our kids extracurricular activities, basic family needs, things we need to do for work…
It seems impossible.
Yet, there are people accomplishing these huge things.
How do they do it?
Do they plan their days to the millisecond?
Not really.
The secret is they don’t balance everything.
Read: How to Maximize Your Moments for Effective Work-LIfe Balance
I struggled with time as well.
On her Rise podcast (which I love), Rachel Hollis says she jumps out of bed each morning because she’s so pumped to work on her goals.
Me? The only days I jump out of bed is when I wake up in a panic with everything I need to do.
What can I do first? What should I do first?
But then.. the kicker. I can’t decide. I don’t decide. So I hop on my email, delete most of the messages in my inbox. Then I let the dogs out. Then I run to the bathroom to turn on the shower.
I feel busy. I feel productive.
But I get nothing of substance done. Nothing that moves the needle forward.
I bet you fall into this trap, too. We focus on the reactive and everyone else’s needs and issues.
We think that’s what we need to do.
We think we should balance it all.
It’s our time sink.
That’s where our time goes.
The secret to achieving big things is…
Only focusing on one big goal at a time.
And I don’t mean per day.
I mean one big thing period.
If it’s with our parenting, maybe its working on building your child’s positivity or focusing on your kids unloading the dishwasher.
What it doesn’t look like is thinking to yourself:
“Ok, I want my kids to be more positive. They need to do chores. They also need clean clothes. I would like them to pack their own lunch and they need to be more grateful, too. Oh, and I also have a big project for work and I need to cook more at home.”
Then what happens? It’s like me planning to wrap all my Christmas presents while simultaneously cooking dinner in 30-minutes.
You get mad and quit because it’s too big of a task.
Think like Zorro
In the book, The Happiness Advantage, author Shawn Achor describes the plight of Zorro.
Oh yes, Zorro was a complicated man.
He wanted to become a prized and heroic fighter and he wanted it to happen NOW.
But, whenever he set out to accomplish these grand deeds, he failed.
Not just tiny failures, big colossal stumbles.
Until he found a teacher who drew a circle on the ground and told Zorro: “Here is your circle. Master and practice defending that little circle.”
Zorro did.
Once he mastered that circle, the teacher drew a larger circle.
It got bigger and bigger until Zorro.. Became, well… Zorro.
That’s the path to accomplishing everything you want to do.
READ: How a Planner Can Keep You Sane
What’s Your Circle?
What do you want to work on this week? This month?
Do you want more family time? What does that look like? Is it a board game once a week? Is it a craft project on Sunday afternoon?
Want your kids to get ready on-time for school? Help them write down everything they need to do each morning. Focus solely on that. Tame Your Morning Chaos for Kids will help you through this process if you need it)
Whatever your one goal is… write it down.
How this makes your day easier
Remember when my son wanted to eat, my daughter wanted her belt and I was about to go insane?
My major goal that week was to write everyday.
I needed time for it that day. I know blog posts take me at least 2 hours from start to finish.
So, I sat down and planned out my day.
The first thing I wrote down was the two hours for the blog post.
Once I saw that I made time for it, my whole body relaxed.
I breathed.
I then scheduled what my kids would do during that time. Don’t think it was anything monumental. I turned off screen time restrictions on their tablets and let them play games and watch movies.
Focus on the one thing
The hardest part of this process is deciding on what that one thing will be. Once you know your focus, you can cut through the distractions.
Find that one priority and push for THAT.
Schedule THAT.
Go for THAT.
Let Zorro be your guide. Take action right now. Share with me. Write in the comments below what your big focus will be this week. Pick only one.
I want to hear it.
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JoAnn Crohn
CEO/Founder at No Guilt Mom
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Loved the article
I feel this way many times.
I started with 3 goals to accomplish. Every day my list is different. It helps keep everything in perspective
Do you have a huge goal that your three goals relate to?