Episode 56: #3 Ready or Not: Navigating Change as a Working Mom
ITUNES | SPOTIFY
In this final episode of the Ready or Not mini-series, Katelyn challenges the belief that change has to be big—or hard—to be worth it. And even when life feels uncertain or chaotic and you might be inclined to stick with the status quo, change can actually make life easier. Too often, we settle for “good enough” without realizing how much better things could be. If you’re feeling stuck or stretched thin, this episode is your reminder that ease might be just one small change away.
links & resources mentioned in this episode:
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Hey there. I've got a quick question for you. Do you ever feel like there's never enough time to do all the things that you need to do as a working mom? If you're anything like my clients and a lot of the listeners I've been talking to, I'm guessing the answer is yes, no matter what. You try from time blocking and turning off notifications to fancy planners or intricate lists, full of color coded categories.
Nothing seems to really have an impact on the size of your to-do list, let alone how you feel about how much you got done each day. If you resonate with that, I've got something for you. I am bringing back my popular training called Plenty of Time, four Steps to Create More Space in Your Working Mom Schedule.
During this class, I'm gonna walk you through exactly how to get things done in the time that you have, no matter what season of life you're in or how busy you are. It is happening on Thursday, July 31st at 12 noon Eastern time, 9:00 AM Pacific. No complicated tools or just double down mentality. This is just a simple, repeatable way to make progress on that never ending list.
Go to the mother nurture.com/class to get all signed up. Again, that's the mother nurture.com/class. I can't wait to see you there.
📍 You are listening to the Life Coach for Working Moms podcast, the show where we are talking about what it actually takes to make life work as a working mom. I'm your host, Katelyn Denning, a full time working mom of three and a certified life and executive coach. I'm so glad you're here and I hope you enjoy this week's episode.
Welcome back. To the third episode in this mini series on change called Ready or Not Navigating Change as a Working Mom. I wanna get right into this episode because I see too many working moms just accepting where they are, thinking that this is just how things are.
Or thinking that the only change that could possibly help would be something so big, like to quit your job or go part-time. Because managing a career and a family is just too much.
But what if there are changes that you could make right now, today, this week, in this season? That would make your life easier. That would make things calmer, and then perhaps you might have the capacity to make a bigger change that would require a little more preparation. Like we were talking about in the last episode of this series,
the World is noisy. Right now, or I guess maybe it's always noisy and things certainly feel uncertain. You could say there are macro changes happening, things that we don't necessarily have direct control over. All of the information, reading about the changes, hearing about it, talking about it, thinking about it, it is overwhelming and overstimulating.
And when you feel overwhelmed or overstimulated, the natural response for so many of us is to conserve. It is to protect, to quote unquote, hunker down. Focusing on what feels normal, on what feels comfortable, on what is known, because so much out there feels unknown. And what ends up happening then is that we avoid adding anything new.
Right. There's so much out there happening that the last thing you want to do is intentionally rock the boat. There's enough uncertainty as it is. Let's not change anything else if we can help it. But by not changing, you're also not getting the benefit of those changes. I like to think about the changes that are within my control with so much happening in the broader world, or even just with our families in our work lives at home.
The things that happen outside of you that, that feel a little bit beyond your control. I find it really empowering to, in those moments, in those seasons, to make my own changes. To make changes intentionally and on purpose. To change up how I use my time to shift my schedule by choosing what I say yes and what I say no to, to change my habits or update my routines.
Those are changes that I own. I get to make those changes,
and there's empowerment in that. I'm sure there's a study out there that could support what I'm about to say, but from my own experience, anecdotally, I realize that with a lot of changes, my immediate reaction is to go to a place of fear or hesitancy. Not always, but often maybe you relate to that or feel that way too.
You think about the things that might not work out. You think about how your kids will react and what if they're not happy with this new childcare provider or at this new school, or what if we change up the extracurriculars that they're in and they miss the old ones?
Or what if potty training is actually harder? Because now instead of being able to just change a diaper on a road trip, we always have to be thinking about where the closest restroom is, or
what if I change my job and it's harder or more stressful, or I don't have as much autonomy and flexibility?
And what I also notice is that we don't spend as much time thinking about all the things that could go right. We think about what could go wrong, what we might not like. As much what we might miss, what could be worse and we don't think about the things that could possibly be better than we imagined or easier than we thought.
I like to paint my nails at home and I'm, I'm a big fan of the Olive and June nail polish, if you're familiar with that brand. And I am also in a phase of my life where I'm trying to use what I own before I just click purchase on something and have another box delivered to my porch.
I'm thinking about. What else I already have that could serve that purpose or what else I could use up. So right now I am aiming to use all of my nail polish before buying anything new. But I noticed over the last couple months that each week when I paint my nails, I have been like tilting and twisting the bottle of my topcoat polish to try and soak up every last drop.
Using up what I have well. I finally decided to just order a new bottle of my top coat just to have on hand for when my current bottle finally bites the dust. But I decided to open it up early, and when I painted my nails with the new bottle, holy cow, it was so easy.
I would say it was like butter going on. It went on so easily. It was plentiful. It spread out so evenly on my nails. I had no idea how old my last bottle was and how hard I was making it on myself until I had the new bottle to compare it to. It took me so much less time and effort to finish my nails.
Now, I know that might seem like a silly example, but that's exactly what it's like with your routines, your systems, and your time. Sometimes you're sticking with good enough. When something better, something easier is available, you're thinking about the effort. The time and how hard it might be, instead of thinking about how it might make things better and easier on the other side.
So instead of assuming that where you are and how you're doing things is good enough, instead of assuming that. What's on the other side of the change might be the same or not as good as where you are. Spend some time thinking about the possibility. How much easier might it be to paint your nails with a newer bottle of polish?
What might be possible if this works out for the best? Is this current way that you're managing your time, the current way that you're thinking about your time and your priorities actually working? Or is it just familiar?
And what if feeling better? What if making things easier is just on the other side of a small shift, a change that. You choose a change that you control, a change that you make on purpose if you're ready to see, to explore the possibility that things could be better and easier to learn the skill of getting things done in the time that you have so you can create more space for bigger changes and bigger decisions, or just.
Doing things that you want to do because they're possible. Come to my free live class on July 31st. It's called Plenty of Time. You can head to themothernurture.com/class 📍 to get all signed up. I hope you enjoyed this series on change. I would love to hear from you. Send me a DM on Instagram at Love Mother Nurture, or head over to the website and send me a message.
And as always, thank you so much for listening. I will talk with you in the next episode. Until then, take care. I.
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