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Last updated on April 8th, 2022 at 11:44 pm
I was recently asked how I manage to work + be a mom and a wife. From the outside looking in, I guess it looks like I’m one of those people that somehow manage to do ALL THE THINGS. The truth is it isn’t easy, I don’t do it all, and I make a lot of mistakes. I have to focus on being intentional with my days.
We all have different lives, different stories. My story is completely different from yours, but from all I’ve gone through, I’ve decided to continually learn and grow through them.
It’s through these life experiences that I’ve chosen to live intentionally, not reactively, on all the things I do.
I started my business during a time when I was trying to figure out how to navigate being a mom, a homemaker, and having a career. And I wasn’t doing any of it very well. I was stuck in this mindset of wanting to leave my career because I was pregnant with another baby –an excuse to leave. But that was not God’s plan for my life. We’ve been trying to conceive for over 3 years now, and during this time of waiting, God has called me to use my talents.
I am meant to serve a bigger purpose. That drive, energy, joy, motivation, and passion came when I realized that I can help other women with my crazy, weird obsession with organizing. I can help them bring clarity into their lives to find the talents they are intended to share with the world. At the same time, I can serve my family financially and show my daughter that she can do the thing God’s called her to do too.
With my life’s story in perspective, this is how I am intentional in motherhood, homemaking, a career, and pursuing purpose.
Pursuing knowledge and learning from experience are the driving factors of my “success.” But there are some things I’ve learned that I want to share with you in the coming weeks to help you grow in your pursuit for living a life of intention.
Here’s an overview of the lessons I’ve learned through my experience and pursuing growth:
I pray daily.
Each morning, I pray a rosary and read the daily Mass readings. I also pray that I’ll have the patience and be granted the grace to love and serve my family and others. Anchoring my day in prayer has allowed me to grow and focus.
Setting goals gives you a place to go.
When you start with the end in mind, it makes it easier to plan your days, know where to spend your time, and just ease the stress that comes with living.
Making ONE priority each day makes you feel like you’ve never wasted a day.
I will definitely tell you the way I’ve been setting priorities as a way to inspire you, but everyone is different and you’ll need to adopt a strategy that works for YOU.
I’ve learned about myself.
Understanding how I’m wired has been key in making life easier. It doesn’t matter how big or small of a thing I’m working on doing, it just needs to be consistent.
Have a plan.
Knowing your schedule makes it easier to be intentional when life gets in the way.
When I’m most resistant to getting help is usually when I need it the most.
I’ve learned to set aside my pride and accept help. It relieves a lot of pressure, and people who offer to help would not do so if they didn’t want to help.
You must have non-negotiables.
There are some things I absolutely refuse to do or not do. And I’m stickin’ to my guns …until life changes and I need to change my non-negotiables.
Keep things consistent.
It sounds dull and boring, but doing the same things all the time is truly the key to life. It’s exhausting to constantly reinvent the wheel.
Make time for personal growth.
I know I’m happiest not when I’m earning money or if people know my name. It’s when I’ve grown enough to serve other people with my knowledge or creativity or just being me.
Find the thing that sets your soul on fire.
I think so many women lose themselves when they get married and have kids. We get stuck in these roles that start defining our lives. If we want happiness and purpose, and to encourage it in our families, we need to connect or reconnect with the things that make us tick.
There are bad experiences that we can either let drag us down or make us smarter.
Sometimes those experiences hurt really bad, but I feel better if I don’t let it fester and leave a huge knot in my stomach by trying to glean something positive to learn from it.
Create space.
We need space for seeking spirituality and mental clarity and growth. And we need space in our environments to enable us to seek. That means to remove what isn’t serving that purpose.
I used to let life just happen to me. Now I realize that if I don’t want to look back and wonder what it all was for, I better get moving. I’ve had to learn all the lessons above to create a life that allows me to manage motherhood, homemaking, career, and all the things. Most of all, I had to realize that I have a purpose, even if it’s as small as loving my family by doing laundry or the dishes.
Today is the day to be intentional. No more waiting. Start taking action and stop letting life happen. You need to happen to life.
You can check out the resources that have made the greatest factors in making my life more intentional:
Powersheets by Cultivate What Matters
Planners (this is the one I use, but get the one that works for you)
This post hits home. It is easy to just go through the days and lose yourself especially after having a kid. I’ve been sort of at a crossroads recently with work/career/mothering and this post was a good read for me today.
Hey Holly, I’m so glad this was helpful for you today. I feel like it’s taken a while to figure all this out, so I wanted to help any other mamas out there who might be stuck to get ahead a little faster.
Thanks for reading!