FEATURED ON THIS EPISODE

INTERIOR DESIGNER’S GUIDE TO CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN THE EPISODE:

WHAT I’VE LEARNED ABOUT WORK/LIFE BALANCE

WHY WORK/LIFE BALANCE IS POSSIBLE BUT NEVER PERFECTED

THE FEELING OF BEING OUT OF BALANCE IS COMPLETELY NORMAL

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Years ago, I was attending a walk/run at my daughter’s school. The kids ran around the track, and the moms walked, ofcourse. I had scheduled it into my day because it was important for me to do these activities and one of the reasons I work for myself.

So I was catching up with some of the moms, and a woman came running up to me saying Renee, I had been meaning to call you! I’m not going to lie, I hear that quite a bit, and typically, it leads into, I need free design help or, want construction help, or, oh, you won’t believe this contractor. 

This one was different. This woman wanted to pick my brain about how I had achieved work/life balance because she had taken a leave of absence when her children were born and now was about to go back into the workforce. 

She caught me so off guard! I was expecting her to ask for free advice or bitch and moan about something. I did not expect to hear that she thinks I have cracked the code in work/life balance. The fact that I was portraying this couldn’t have been further from the truth.

At any given time, something is falling through the cracks. And I am not telling you this to depress you. I’m just telling you my experiences and the experiences I’ve been hearing from other designers. 

By the time I had children, I had a solid career, and I knew I wanted to keep it both – I wanted to be a mom and keep my thriving career going. 

And I couldn’t have been more naive.

Don’t get me wrong, I tried. I tried a lot of different ways. And I repeatedly failed.

I eventually got sick when my son was in preschool and was forced to take a step back from my business.

Now, I imagine the woman who stopped me on the runway knew none of this. 

It wasn’t until I took the time to step back, evaluate what truly was important to me, and built my health back up that I became ‘successful.’ 

But don’t read ‘successfull’ as work/life balance perfectionism. Because that just doesn’t happen.

I do have a much better work/life balance than I ever have before, but I have no goals of perfecting it because that will never happen in my experience. 

Work/life balance is possible but not perfected. There will be days, weeks, or months where nothing is going right. And I’m here to say I think that’s normal. 

I think there are ways you can help yourself, but just knowing this can be normal and doesn’t last forever, I hope, helps you.