It’s something that many women have to face today, the career versus life debate. When you are growing your career or growing your life, one tends to be sacrificed in favor of the other. And while many organizations are implementing family-friendly policies and programs, most women would probably say there needs to be more to help working mothers. Managing life and career is no easy feat. One thing is for sure, and that is the need for high-achieving women to remaining mindful of the importance of self-care while climbing the career ladder. Many women sacrifice children and marriage in order to achieve their career goals, and this is a personal choice. However, the questions remain – Does it have to be this way? What are the fundamentals you need to consider when ambitious career goals are a dominant factor in your life?

Tips to consider while managing life & career:

Do You Need To Take Every Opportunity?

When climbing the career ladder, we work hard to be positioned for the best opportunities that present themselves. Sometimes women feel pressured to grasp every prime opportunity at every moment as the work environment is often quite competitive. However, are you assessing these opportunities thoroughly to determine if they are genuinely right for you? On the surface, it may appear to be the next move for you, but after a complete review, maybe it is not, The sacrifices you make in the short-term to accommodate this change could mean a major upheaval in your life. You could end up moving to another country when you are not quite ready to make such a leap, It could involve changing industries, or taking on a role that you feel will benefit you in the long term, but right now, it’s 70 hour work weeks, with minimal reward. Every time an opportunity comes your way, it is essential for you to not jump into the fire right away. Be sure to carefully consider every aspect of the offer, and not just how it impacts your career on paper, but how it impacts on your life.

Look After Yourself

We all comprehend the importance of self-care, yet many high-achieving women, especially working moms neglect it nevertheless. It’s essential when embarking on any career progression, that you understand what you are getting into. If you are fresh out of college, and you’ve got your entire life ahead of you, you likely have the energy to dive into every opportunity, but not necessarily possessing the discipline. This choice could leave you open in an emotional sense, and you could be subject to being taken advantage of professionally, or be met with a lot of internal and external conflicts. This is why it’s essential to have a thorough grounding in your life to ensure that you have the support in your life to help you climb the ladder healthily and happily. It doesn’t just stop there, and there are things you can do to ensure that you are the most productive and efficient worker you can be, but are also not sacrificing your sanity as a result.

It’s underestimated, but how you look is an important aspect, and as the cliché goes, dress for the job you want, not the job you have. When climbing up the career ladder, you need to make sure you are presentable and ready to make the next leap. Dressing to impress is something that requires a lot of effort at the outset, but it becomes automatic after a while. At the same time, you can get quite exhausted mentally, by continually putting on this persona, and this is why it’s vital to have a dress sense that is impressive, yet doesn’t require two hours of preparation every morning. Nursing professionals, for example, have uniforms, and nursing shoes, as well as other paraphernalia that is part of their get up to help them do this difficult job every day. To an extent, when you go into a career, you could feel a particular style that you wear around the office to be a uniform. Adapting this uniform mindset can help you to differentiate between work and home life, in a psychological sense. Some people find that as soon as they put a work uniform on, they automatically click into a work frame of mind and the reverse occurs when they remove it. It’s important to make that distinction between work and home life in as many different ways as possible, and this will ensure that you take care of yourself from an emotional perspective.

Ensure You Work Smarter, Not Harder

To succeed in the workplace, you must be a hard worker, but just how hard and what are the limits? Working smarter rather than working harder is something that isn’t considered to be a shortcut; however, it certainly saves you a lot of emotional hassle. Working smarter, instead of working harder means you have the tools at your disposal so that you can do your job effectively, but you can still maintain that balance between your work and your home life. Ultimately, in every organization, the goal is to maximize productivity. This is, essentially, working smarter instead of working harder. Many organizations put great emphasis on this component of productivity, so if you can highlight for your employer that you are resourceful and know how to work smarter instead of harder, this sets you up as a different breed of talent, in a good sense. But, of course, some leaders want to see the next generation work hard because that’s what many of them had to do. It’s worth bearing this in mind when climbing up the career ladder. And when conducting your work plan in relation to being a smart worker, it’s worth thinking about how you can best present this skill set as effectively as possible.

As climbing the career ladder is a lifetime investment, it’s vital for you to ensure you’re not working your entire life with little or no time for self. Managing life and career effectively is a must and the challenge increases the further up the career ladder you go. You won’t look back on your life when on your deathbed and think that you should have worked more. This needs to be on the precipice of your mind when making the next leap in your journey up the career ladder. By all means, ensure that you excel in the career that you desire, but preferably not to the detriment of your personal life or health status.

The struggle experienced by working mothers is a worldwide challenge. Check out the video below and I am certain that no matter where you are in the world, you will be able to relate on some level:

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