Chalene Johnson's How to Deal with Negative People

This Video is a MUST WATCH! No matter if you follow my blog to help you in business or just day to day finances... This video will really be a benefit to you!

Thanks Chalene!! You're an angle!!

Ten Tips for Balancing Work And Family

There is no single formula for attaining a balanced life. It is a personal decision how one combines their career, spouse/significant other, children, friends and self into an integrated whole. The key is to develop creative solutions as you approach the challenges of balancing the responsibilities and joys of your multiple roles. Some of the same skills and strategies you use at work such as planning, organizing, communicating, setting limits and delegating can be used effectively on the home-front for achieving a satisfying, fulfilling and well-balanced life both personally and professionally.

1. Build a Support Network

Ask for help and allow yourself to be helped and contributed to. Get your children involved--work together as a team. Recruit friends, family, neighbors, bosses, work colleagues, etc. and ask for their support. Between work and family, surprises are inevitable. Be prepared by creating back-up and emergency plans; always have a contingency.

2. Let Go of Guilt

Guilt is one of the greatest wastes of emotional energy. It causes you to become immobilized in the present because you are dwelling on the past. Guilt can be very debilitating. By introducing logic to help counter-balance the guilt, you can avoid sabotaging your efforts toward work/family balance and stay better on course.

3. Establish Limits and Boundaries and Remember They are Necessary for Balancing Work and Family

Boundaries are an imaginary line of protection that you draw around yourself. They are about protecting you from other people's actions. Determine for yourself what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior from other people. Boundaries and limits define how you take charge of your time and space and get in touch with your feelings. They express the extent of your responsibilities and power and show others what you are willing to do or accept. Without limits it's difficult to say "no". Remind yourself often that your boundaries are necessary for balancing work and family.

4. Determine Your Own Standards

Get rid of the notion of being a perfectionist. Wean yourself off it by making compromises--figure out where the best places to make the compromises are without short-changing yourself, your spouse, your children, your boss, etc. Live by your own standards rather than someone else's. Standards are about YOU and refer to the behavior and actions you are willing to hold yourself to.

5. Create Time for Yourself

Being a good parent, partner and professional means being good to yourself first. Use your mind to make some affirmations for yourself. Find ways to relax, relieve tension and minimize stress. Taking some time off for yourself will not only benefit you, but it will benefit your work and family tremendously, as well!

6. Get Organized

Set priorities, work smarter not harder, delegate (and really let go!). Create lists and save them for re-use. Keep a main calendar centrally located to post everyone's activities.

7. Balancing Work and Family Requires You to Be Flexible

Forgive yourself when things don't get done. Understand that with children things change at a moment's notice. Be ready and willing to assume responsibility for any of the tasks that need to get done at any time. Never get too comfortable, because as soon as you seem to get things under control, they change! Also, realize that in order to achieve success many women have had to give up their original goals and substitute new ones with different but equal challenges. Negotiate for what you need.

8. Enjoy Quality Family Time

Spend quality/focused time with your family. Give them your full attention. Develop rituals you can all look forward to. Create relationships with your spouse and children that are not incidental but rather instrumental to your success.

9. Find Reliable Child Care

Leave your kids in capable hands. Find someone you feel comfortable and confident in. If you're feeling ambivalent about working or about leaving your child, etc. do not show it--your child (at any age) will pick right up on it. Feel proud when you've found someone who fits into your needs. Get involved with your child's care providers by communicating frequently and observing interactions between caregiver and your child.

10. Achieve an Integrated Life

Keep things in perspective. Create harmony in your life--a mixture of work, family and friends. Remember, there is no single formula for balancing work and family. It is a personal decision how one combines spouse, children and career.

Every day we each wake up and make a choice as to who and what we are going to be. We choose what to wear, what to eat and who we will and will not associate with. We even make the choice as to what kind of person we are going to be. Today, you made the choice to find my blog and read it, and had I not made the choice to create it, you would have nothing to read!

The point is that every thing we do is a choice. And even when life seems to be at it's worst we have choices in the way we handle things and how we deal. If you can't look at your life today and say I am 100% happy where I am, then it's time you make a change. It's easy to say, but usually seems like an impossibility for most people...

Is this what you are thinking?  "How can I change my life? I have kids, a husband, a wife, a lousy job, no car, an apartment that's too small and no money... Where would I even start? It's not worth it!"

Well, I can answer all that in just a few short words... STOP THINKING - START DOING!

You see, the difference between thinking and doing is that when you are doing, something actually changes. You can THINK about change all you want! But if you refuse to act, nothing can change. Now, you may be thinking it's easy for HER to say I can do it, but SHE doesn't have my life, my family or my situation... Well, you are right. I don't have YOUR life. But I have my own stubborn unsupportive family, a home that's too small, no car and two small children to worry about. The difference is that I am willing to ignore the family and lean on MY strengths, ignore the house knowing it's only temporary, walk to the store and enjoy the trip and build my new life FOR my small kids so they don't have to be where I was!

Today, I am a successful home based business owner with an incredible company and team! I don't yet own my dream home, but I'm getting there! My husband has been able to come home full time and my beautiful children are happy and healthy by my side. I have gone from being miserably unhappy and depressed to knowing and understanding that I can and do rule my own world and my life. My choice to be happy, healthy and successful was all it took to change everything for me... 

So, how did I do it? Where did I start? Well, it was much easier than you may think. I just stopped listening to everyone else... I got up in the morning and refused to listen to the negativity... A news story about a fire would come on and I would turn it off... My mother would start to tell me how building my business isn't going to support us, and I hung up the phone. I stopped letting ANYONE bring me down. And I started looking for reasons to believe in ME!

This blog is being created to give YOU the option to change your life the way I did. To find all the best options for YOU and YOUR life. Regardless of where you are starting out today you have choices to make that can change your life. Where will you start? For most people the thing that needs to change the most is their money situation. The old saying is that Money can't buy happiness. But I never understood that... I mean, sure you can be rich and miserable - BUT having the money to meet the bills each month, fix the car and have a hat and coat in the winter makes it a WHOLE lot easier to be happy! So, this blog will focus mostly on that aspect, but not totally.

Here we will explore the different options concerning working, shopping and a number of other areas that can help to change the way you live and thus - Change Your Life!

Today is the first day of the rest of your life! Welcome to it! Make the choice to enjoy it!

Sabrina M Bowen