As I was researching my recent post on working moms of young children, I came across Katrina Alcorn’s TED Talk “Maxed Out – Changing the conversation about women and work.” It’s a great deeper dive into one woman’s story of being seriously maxed out and how she changed her life as a result.
Tag Archives: taking care of yourself
Stretched Too Thin
(This post originally appeared on Leading By DESIGN’s Leadership Matters blog, which is written for alumni of our LEAD 365 program. I am part of the LbD team and want to share our posts with you.)
A few weeks ago I borrowed a book from my sister about making time for self care. Not surprisingly (and somewhat ironically), I haven’t had time to read it. I don’t consider myself very busy compared to many of the people I work with. Sure, I work a lot of hours, but my work hours are flexible, I have just one child, my husband and I both work from home quite a bit, and we hire people to clean for us. But still, I have very little extra time.
I specialize in coaching women and emerging leaders, and I’ve seen a trend in the women I’ve coached over the last seven years. Many of them are incredibly accomplished in their careers, have small children and equally busy partners, and prioritize their own self care absolutely last. I’ve been wondering about why this is, and how, as a coach, to help. There are no cut and dry answers. Every individual is different, and every stage of life presents its own challenges.