Book | Get the Balance Right (Revised Edition)

Description

Book | Get the Balance Right (Revised Edition)

DISCOVER a user-friendly framework for understanding balance and imbalance, easy ways to identify where you need to intervene to create more balance, and practical techniques for achieving balance.

If you feel out of control and overwhelmed, with racing mind and emotional extremes, this book is for you. If you are desperate for more time to get to the many tasks you have to get through in a day, this book is for you. If you often feel out of balance and don’t know how you got through the day, this book is also for you. And if you feel that you’ve dropped too many balls lately, this book is definitely for you.

There are no magical solutions in this book—nor life in general, it seems. What this book will do, though, is introduce you to a user-friendly framework for understanding balance and imbalance and being able to assess where you are, and how you got there. It will then offer you practical techniques to create more balance.

The first few chapters explain the concepts of balance and imbalance, as well as the role of stress in maintaining either state. You’ll discover your unique way of experiencing stress, and then, once you have an idea of where and how your stressors occur, how to effectively manage that stress to maintain balance. I’ll share with you all the best ways I’ve found to achieve this, so you’ll build up a supply of good coping mechanisms, for which we’ll use the term “resources”. I’ll also make sure you know how to recognise “fake” resources, and resources that are actually demands in disguise, so that you only choose ones that are best for you. You’ll find the guidelines user-friendly, practical and easy to apply.

Because working mothers are probably the single group of people who need it most, I’ve chosen to focus on them—not to mention that they are my tribe. Seriously, a majority of my clients, as well my friends and acquaintances, are women in their late 20s to mid-50s, struggling to balance a job of some sort with all that accompanies motherhood: career, relationships, infertility, children and/or the marriage and home.

Put simply, working moms seem to have to juggle the most balls out of everyone, every day. I’ll use the juggling analogy throughout. If you’re a juggler, you’ll know it; it needs no further explanation. The good news is you’ve come to the right place: by the time you’ve finished this book, you’ll be a master—you’re already a master—a champion juggler.

I’ve been asked by stay-home parents and working dads whether this book is also for them. To this I say, absolutely! As a parent, you’re working that job every day whether or not you have a job outside of the home. The reason for specific emphasis on the working mom is because I am one, and I want to pass on the lived experience and coping tips I’ve learnt to the group I know best.

Finally, this edition is a fully revised and updated version of how to manage the balancing act. The world has changed radically since 2005 when my twins were babies and we still used fax machines! The advent of the Covid-19 pandemic also impacted the way we live, work and juggle, in extraordinary ways. This has called for extraordinary adaptation, one of which includes the input from partner in life and work, Neil Bierbaum, an accomplished writer and experienced life and executive coach. He has brought fresh perspectives (yes, from a male point of view) and practical wisdoms to this edition. He also made valuable suggestions around some areas of self and work which hadn’t been covered in the 2005 version, and this has resulted in bonus chapters as well as more practical tips and tools to support you, throughout.

For any working parent, the world of work has changed unrecognisably, so the addition of a chapter to cover the challenges of the new world of work was essential. While the spheres of work and life are still evolving, this chapter lists the main challenges borne out of working from home and of late, the hybrid workspace, as well as my (and Neil’s) best tried and tested solutions for managing both scenarios.