As I look out at our garden, the signs of spring are exciting, inviting and full of hope.  I invite you to take a moment to notice what's growing around you.

I'm happy to share my brand new websites Pacific Life Coach and Working Mother's Coach with you and I'd love to hear your feedback. 

Warmly,
Amber

1) Build Your Support Network
Talk to your partner or folks in your support network about your work/life vision. You'll strengthen your relationships, save time and energy and build the support you'll need to make your vision a reality.

2) Communicate at Work Too
Not everyone has the luxury of working with colleagues who are familiar with the challenges of a working parent. Talk regularly with your supervisor and/or your staff about your schedule, priorities and options. Only you know what you need to balance your roles as parent and professional, so speak up.

3) No Parent is an Island - Delegate!
One of the secrets to success as a working parent is learning how to delegate to other staff, your partner, your family, etc. If you're feeling overwhelmed, take a look at your to-do list and ask yourself some honest questions. What do you absolutely need to do right now? What can you postpone, delegate or say "no" to?

4) Learn How to Say "No"
Saying "no" is a critical skill you can build. The inability to say "no" is one of the biggest obstacles to achieving balance. Once you have defined your priorities, you have a clear idea of how you want to spend your time. Saying "no" allows you to say "yes" to your priorities.

5) Learn How to Let Go
Take a hard and honest look at what's in your control vs. what's out of your control. Once you figure this out, you can shift your energy, time and focus to that which can truly benefit from your attention.

6) Create a Childcare Safety Net
A key ingredient to feeling good about working is knowing that your children are getting the best care possible. Pay attention to your intuition and your child's individual needs when choosing childcare. And create plan B and C for the inevitable emergency needs.

7) Schedule Self-Care into Your Calendar
The success of your work/life vision depends on your self-care. Schedule your self-care activities into your calendar as non-negotiable dates and times.

8) Learn How to Manage Guilt
The next time you feel guilty, shine a spotlight on guilt. Get really curious about it. What happened right before you started to feel guilty? What's the cost of feeling guilty? Spend a minute writing down everything that comes up for you around guilt. You'll notice that by writing it down, it decreases the power of the emotion. Better awareness of guilt leads to better management of guilt.

9) Lower Your Expectations
If you want to maintain your sanity and sense of well-being, adopt the mantra "good is good enough".

10) Get Comfortable with Constant Change
Once you can embrace rather than resist the constant change that parenthood brings, you'll experience much less stress. Working parenthood calls for you to be agile and adaptable - work on stretching that muscle.

A seasoned professional life coach and mother of two, Amber Rosenberg helps working mothers manage guilt and stress and re-define success on their own terms. Through personal one-on-one coaching, she's empowered hundreds of moms across the US, Canada and Europe to achieve success that's balanced. Through corporate coaching, she's helped dozens of employers such as Adobe, Morgan Stanley and Google to create a more supportive work environment for their valued employees.

 

With 15 years of professional experience, she started her career as a public relations coach for executives at Fortune 500 companies and non-profits. Amber opened her life coaching business in 2004 and deeply enjoys making a difference in others' lives every day.

 

Amber has been interviewed for national/local TV shows, magazines, newspapers and blogs and she wrote a chapter on "How to Manage Your Love/Hate Relationship with Time" for the book Inspiration to Realization.