Your Life as a Mom — Reflect, Prioritize, Change

December 28, 2017 Sarah Knuppel Health

Moms, this one is for you. Whether you are a working mom, stay at home mom, work from home mom, or soon to be mom, this heartfelt knowledge from my 14 years as a mother will be invaluable.

Stop and look around you… Are you at work? Scrolling through Facebook? Hiding out in the bathroom? Checking your email?

Stop and think… Are you struggling with the work/life balance? Do you have a desire to stay home with your children? Do you have talents that aren’t being tapped into? Do you find you have no time for YOURSELF or your husband? Is your household chaotic? Are your children acting out?

Does this sound all too familiar? Do you fall into one of these questions? If so, you came to the right place today. Today is the day you start thinking about YOU – your life as a mom, wife, and creative being.

Let’s Talk About Motherhood

Let’s talk about motherhood – are you aware that your job as a mom is so important? Moms who provide a loving, nurturing, peaceful environment have children who have more self esteem, perform better in school, and are more creative. Here’s the caveat – in order to be a mother, you MUST take care of yourself first.

Now, if you are a mom and you work full time, it is VERY difficult to have energy to provide energy for you, your husband and your family, let alone your work. However, there is this ideological belief that moms have to work full time, exhausting every source of energy they have until everything suffers. Their children suffer. Their marriage suffers. Their health suffers. Their WHY suffers.

Their creativity suffers. Their relationship with God suffers. Their priorities suffer.

What if we changed our beliefs about raising children in the 21st century? Our beliefs about motherhood? What if we listened to the voice inside of us that said- STOP, THINK , CHANGE?

I’m telling you from experience, YOU create your own destiny. YOU can stop the madness. YOU can change your life.

The Change Starts With YOU

But change starts with you…

First, acknowledge that you need to change – for you (unhappy), your family (not enough time) , your giftings (untapped). Now, make a list of all the things you’d like to do that you don’t have time or energy for (i.e. exercise, cooking, shopping, family nights, date nights, girls nights, traveling, etc).

Second, take that list and prioritize it. What is important to you? What gives you and your family the most well rounded quality of life? What feeds your soul? In order to keep myself on track, I literally have a NOTE on my phone that says – DAILY.

Here is what is in my daily list: Bible, exercise, nutrition, outside, read, write, entrepreneur, kids, Ryan. I make sure I fit quality time for all of these priorities each day. Prioritize your life.

Third, figure out stumbling blocks to these priorities and remove them.

Is it your job robbing you of family/health? Is it your lack of sleep? Is it your lack of motivation? Are you inside too much? Are you watching too much mindless television? Are your children on technology instead of talking with you? Do you feel disconnected to your husband? At all costs, remove these blocks to your personal priorities and focus on CHANGE.

Let’s Look At An Example

  • Exercise– do this in am before day hits, during lunch hour, or after school with kids
  • Bible– read in morning before chaos.
  • Nutrition– meal prep on sundays.
  • Outside– take walks on lunch hour each day.
  • Read– go to the library and read an interesting book each night instead of TV.
  • Write– pick up your pen or computer and just start…
  • Entrepreneur– Spend time starting up your own endeavor or a work from home gig.
  • Children– work less hours, be home when they get home from school, attend their events, establish weekend game nights.
  • Husband– work on a creative project together, have date nights.

Enjoy Your Life

Finally, enjoy your life! This life is way too short to be living in shackles. Acknowledge, prioritize, remove, and change! I know this because I experienced it at different points in my life, just as you may be.

I’ll leave you with a quote from a very influential man in today’s society – Stephen R. Covey

“People can’t live with change if there’s not a changeless core inside them. The key to the ability to change is a changeless sense of who you are, what you are about, and what you value.”

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