With the approaching holidays often comes tension between work life and home life.
Your job has certain expectations of you. And so does your family.
The more convinced you are that you must meet all of those expectations, the more stress you’ll feel. And the less likely it is that you’ll be able to meet expectations.
Here are a few things to keep in mind to help you navigate the tension between your family and career:
➡️ You aren’t bound to live up to every expectation. Other people’s desires for you don’t automatically become obligations for you.
➡️ Every “Yes” is also a “No.” Before you agree to do something, be aware of what you are giving up in order to say yes. Be sure it’s the trade you really want to make.
➡️ Make decisions based on values more than urgency. And if you want help discovering or articulating your values, see my free “Discovering Personal Values” exercise at https://northwayinsights.com/exercises.
➡️ Your family will last longer than your job. When you consider how to apply your values to your decisions, think about the long-term, downstream effects of your choices. Consider the example you are setting to the next generation who is watching how you choose.
➡️ Remember that your current job is not your entire career. You may feel like your future opportunities will be decided by how you perform over the next few weeks, but that’s rarely true.
➡️ Consider how your example may inspire your work colleagues to respond to their own conflicting expectations.
You feel the tension because you know that any compromise will bring discomfort.
But when you choose which discomfort you’re ready to accept, you’ll often find that it actually doesn’t hurt as much as you thought it would.
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