Working Mom

When you have children you feel like you lose yourself, or you find yourself. Sort of both. It becomes very difficult to make plans. Figuring out how to make your agenda work and the act of planning seem to become very important tasks. Suddenly you realize you have yourself, hopefully your partner and that other little being that thinks you are some kind of super hero to whom all your remaining energy will be destined.

During the past four years, I have felt extremely exhausted, between work work and home work there seems to be no time for recovery, very little time for leisure. The insight around this is that recovery has been scientifically proven to be the most important element around top performance and if you cannot find time for recovery, you risk performance and sustained performance which is key to any healthy organization. Ask any athlete around this and they will give you the facts.

Wellbeing in the US is worth more than $450 billion dollars and is growing more than 5% annually according to a McKinsey September 2022 study. This industry should not even exist if we were taught how to eat, move and meditate from an early age. Also, in the last McKinsey and LeanIn report on Women in the Workplace, "women leaders are overworked and under recognized" with burnout on the rise for women, 43% vs. men 31%.

This data should be enough to remind us that taking care of ourselves is key to caring for others and that women are very good natural caregivers at home and in the workplace but their efforts are going unnoticed. The paradox is that we are paying tons of money to get disconnection and recovery experiences, those we could get for free if we had the knowledge and discipline to execute on our own.

Conclusion?

The plane oxygen mask analogy is real. You cannot fully help others if you are not in control of yourself. Little sleep, lack of quality food and rest, saying yes to everything will not add to a healthy person yet alone a healthy organization which is why Wellbeing should be on all CEOs plates by now. The pandemic only made this even more evident because it reminded us that life is short and fragile.

This brief text is for all brave working moms and dads who feel like they are not in control anymore. Trust me, you are doing enough and you are allowed to say no. Prioritize time for recovery, find your own recipe and stick with it. If this means letting others down, let them down. In the long run everyone will benefit from a healthier version of you. Hopefully our society will one day understand how important it is for children to have present and rested parents to guide their early lives so they become great citizens capable of adding real value to their communities. Wars could probably be avoided if we had more knowledge and control around our wellness: mental, physical and spiritual health.

So... let's do more yoga, sleep more, cook our own meals, learn to meditate. Let's make a conscious effort in making work fit our lifestyle and not the other way round like we were taught and programmed to believe. Let 2023 begin.