As a working mom, you have a lot on your plate. Between juggling work, home life, and all the other responsibilities that come with motherhood, there's very little time or energy left for anything else. And yet, if at some point you want to advance your career or make a career shift, one of the most important things you can do is networking.

As a working mom, you're no stranger to the juggling act. Between managing your career, family responsibilities, and everyday life, it can feel like you’re on a constant treadmill, running but never quite getting ahead.

Do you love your job? I'm curious if that answer has changed over the years. I know it has for me, especially after having kids. Before I had my oldest child, I worked because frankly, I was ambitious. After working hard for my degree and taking risks to get internships and move to new cities, I wanted to put it all to good use.

I feel very strongly that one of the ways I was able to create better work life balance for myself, was by reminding myself of this very thing. My 70% is someone else's 100%. That acknowledgement gave me permission to breathe. To slow down just a little. To stop hustling so hard.

I implemented a few simple routines that I could do each week to prioritize my own career growth and ensure that I'd always at least have some ideas about where I was headed and what I was working toward.

Coasting at work or quiet quitting is getting a lot of air time these days. But the truth is, working parents have gone in and out of phases of coasting for years as we navigate returning from parental leave, co-parenting with a partner's demanding work schedule, or just daycare illness season each fall/winter. It can be necessary at times and life/career-saving too. But what if you're stuck coasting because you think you don't have the time or energy that "leaning in" to your career will take? And what if the truth is, it doesn't take that much more?

Do you have an example in your own life of what’s possible as a working mom? As a working mom, it is possible to identify with and love being a mother while also having a successful and fulfilling career.

We're conditioned to want the next thing, to make the next change, or hit the next milestone. But what if you decided that settling in and fine-tuning the life that you have right now IS the next milestone? What if your next phase of growth happens BECAUSE you chose to coast?

If there's one thing I've learned since becoming a mom, it's that everything changes - kids, jobs, schedules, feelings. And I've also learned that I can figure most things out when they do change. So whether you decide to continue working, to change jobs, to stay home, or go part-time, you will figure it out if it's what you want.

The decision to work or to quit is less about the reason for making the choice than it is about how the decision is being made. A working mom who wants to change her life by quitting her job has power; when she feels that she must quit her job, she has none. There are steps you can take, work you can do, to put yourself in a position of power.

Why do you work?

If you’re anything like me, that answer has changed over the years, and especially since having kids.

Before I had my son (my first), I worked because it was what you do. I needed to support myself, to pay off loans, to pay for fun things like trips and nights out and new clothes, and to save for bigger future purchases (car, house, etc.).