If there is one thing I hear more than anything else from the ambitious mums I coach it's this...
I know I could make a real go of this, if only I had the time!
You know the story.
You drop the kids off at school, you stick a wash on, you look around the house, you clear away a few toys, then you sit down with a drink and try to plan your day.
Your mind goes blank.
What was it you wanted to achieve today again?
You're damned if you can remember so you just sit for a bit longer, or stare at a blank screen thinking 'I'm sure it will come to me in a minute'
You get some admin done, scroll on social media, reply to a few messages or ring a few people who've needed to get back to and before you know it, it's time to pick the kids up...
...and you feel like you got absolutely nothing done!
You spend the school run asking yourself questions like 'Why do I never have the time to really make a go of this?' or 'Will this ever come together for me?' or even 'It seem so easy for everyone else to run a successful business and have a great life balance, where do they get the time to do everything - and why is it so impossible for me?'
You believe the problem is your lack of time, but really there is something much bigger at play!
You see, everyone has the same amount of time, so why is it that some people smash through their goals with time to spare and other spend every waking moment 'working' but seem to get nothing done?
If we look at the habits of the rich and famous, we can start to see how they get so much done in the time they have.
There are lots which Millionaires and High Performers have in common, but let's just pick out three which we can use to get back in control of our time:
1) To keep moving forward, you need to know where you're heading
There is no point filling up your day with tasks which actually don't get you anywhere.
As busy and ambitious mums with businesses to run and houses to manage - this could be the everyday 'stuff' like the washing, ironing or tidying, or the core business activities such as delivering what you've promised to your clients/customer, admin and social media engagement.
But what you might be missing here is your Vision.
Where exactly do you want your business to be in 5 years time? What kind of life do you want to be living by then? How much money do you want in the bank and what do you want to be doing for that money?
Millionaires know their Vision and they prioritise the journey towards it.
By making your vision as detailed as you can, you're setting your subconscious the task to help you get there.
Having a Vision and taking small but consistent steps towards it, even if this is just 10 minutes per day, can have a massive impact on how you feel about the progress yoou're making in the time you do have.
2) To reach for your Vision, you need the belief you will someday get there
What we sometimes find if we look at people who do have a vision, but don't seem to be motivated to take the steps needed to move closer to it, is they lack the belief.
If this is you, you're not alone.
Lacking the belief in yourself that you can achieve great things (your vision) is a lot to do with what you've been taught throughout your childhood and what psychologists call subconscious limiting beliefs.
A limiting belief is simply something you believe which limits you in some way. These can be conscious or subconscious and they can be small or huge in terms of the impact they have on your life.
When we look at time, a few example limiting beliefs are listed below:
- I never have enough time
- I could never achieve that, I simply don't have the time
- The people I see who are successful probably have loads of time (and probably don't have kids)
- I should not be investing that much money when I probably won't have the time to put as much energy into it as I should.
So what can we do about them?
Well, by simply knowing what they are, we are 90% there.
As they say - knowledge is power!
By listening to the stories we tell ourselves or the negative questions we ask ourselves on a daily basis, we can identify what our strongest limiting beliefs might be, ask where these come from (i.e. is this a belief passed down from a parent?) and then analyse them to see if they're actually true.
For example - if your limiting belief is that you believe you simply don't have the time for self-care - like taking a bath, or reading a chapter of a book - you could sit down and write our your entire weekly schedule and then see if there is half an hour free for you to fit in your self-care activity.
And the chances are, if you looked for the time to do a specific activity in a conscience and intentional way, you would probably find it.
Therefore, the one thing that builds belief is knowing what is holding you back, knowing where it that belief comes from, questioning whether it is actually true and then deciding to push back against it every time it pops up again in the future.
3) To make progress, you need to get organised and be resilient
The final part of the puzzle to getting your time back and your life balance in order as a busy and ambitious mum, is getting your plan together and building resilience for any obstacle which pop up along the way.
So, you need to ask yourself, what planning tools do you use and are they working for you?
If you have a to-do-list, the most important thing is to split your tasks into actions which you simply need to complete (core business tasks, admin or house/family tasks) and then actions you need to be taking for self-development which actually push you towards the vision we discussed earlier.
A good to-do-list needs to be a mix of both of the elements and the ideal is working to a list where at least one thing per day is part of your overarching vision.
Often we find these 'vision' tasks easily fall off the bottom of any list, simply because they are the ones which are the most 'risky' or 'scary' or push you out of your comfort zone so naturally get left to the end, especially if you're busy.
But by making these tasks a priority and developing your resilience, getting back up after a fall and learning from every negative experience you can slowly change your beliefs and mindset around failure and start to enjoy these types of activities.
And by living to a better plan - one which includes tasks which push you forward towards your vision - and developing a better relationship with failure, you will find yourself prioritising actions which get you better results and eliminating the feeling around never having enough time.
Want to come and join me in my online community of mums-in-business learning the Mindset & Method to scale their businesses, earn more from working less and get their time back? If so, just click here to join me in my Facebook Group 'More to Me than Mum'. I'd love to see you inside.