Productivity in Chaos

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It’s probably the most common question I get asked….

How on earth do you get SO much done WITH children?

Well…. here’s the short of it.  I. HAVE. NO. IDEA!!!  I wish there was some magical bean that I could give each and every Mom who runs a business that would simultaneously clean their homes, do their laundry, manage their inbox, meet with clients, and fulfill orders.  However, as of yet, there has yet to be a beanstalk of any kind in my backyard.  BUMMER!

But what I can do is be real.  Offer up to you the good, the bad, the ferociously ugly and pray that somehow it gives you a glimpse of hope that yes, it will be okay.

You see, life with kids is just plain hard.  This nonstop, zero rest, constantly chaotic lifestyle is just something that you can’t truly wrap your mind around until you live it.   I mean, who can calculate a fever breaking out 15 minutes before you walk out the door, finding your cell phone in the toilet, or realizing your child has just eaten all of the dog food???  I mean, REALLY??? Come on now!  Whatever happened to June cleaver and the perfectly mannered children who sit around and watch you make cookies?  Where are those kids???  When I try and make cookies my kids are climbing on the counter, fighting over who gets to stir, and our kitchen ends up looking like high school lunch room after a food fight.  Let’s just be honest.  Parenting is Hard Work!  Throw running a business in the mix and you’ve pretty much submerged yourself in sanity suicide.  It’s just the truth.

You might be thinking to  yourself right now, lady, you need to get control of your kids!  I can’t even believe you would let them do that.  I bet you have no discipline in your house at all.  Fine.  Judge me.  I really don’t care.  Because you don’t live here, and honestly, have no idea how I run my home.   We actually run a pretty tight ship.  We have to.  Because our kiddos are headstrong, energetic, button pusher types.  If we didn’t, then we’d have a really scary situation on our hands.   But they are also KIDS…. and this is the only time they will ever be this age.   So is a little flour disaster in the midst of making cookies really worth the fight?  For me…. it’s not.  I would much rather make light of the situation… throw a little flour back at  them and take advantage of a memory in the making.

But what is worth the fight?

I fight for my children to know that they are important, beautiful and a huge blessing to me.

I fight to keep my Marriage top priority.

I fight to keep my business successful without letting it take over.

And these, are the toughest fights of my life.   When you have a passion for work like I do, one of the toughest things in the world is saying No.

I mean, this is a HUGE opportunity!  If I say no then…….  OR… I have a huge project or order that needs my attention!  If I say no then…….

Then what??? Really.  What would happen?  Would your world come crashing down around you if you had the strength to say no?  If you put your priorities back in order and went on a date with your husband instead of culling a wedding??? Would it really fall apart?

I think you’d be very surprised.  Like I started out saying, I do not have all of the answers.  My beanstalk has yet to appear, and I still wake up every day wondering how I am going to make it all happen.  But I can say this.   The revelation I had about a year ago has revolutionized my life.  It has changed my business, my parenting and  most importantly my marriage.   We can have it all.  We really can.   But for me the first step to “having it all” was realizing that what I had, wasn’t what I wanted.  I had put to much on my plate.  I.  Me.  No one else.  I was responsible for things not working out the way I wanted.  And it was my responsibility to get things back to where they needed to be.

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Isaac and I sat down and went back to the drawing board…. Where did I go wrong? What needed to be fixed? What changes could we make to get on track?
What we came up with turned out to be the simplest solution ever. We can only do what we love. Really? We can do that??? Well I don’t know if we can… but WE DID!

From the ground up we started putting things on our plate and used this criteria….
Is this something we love?
Are we passionate about it?
Is this the best use of our time or is there someone else who may have a passion for this better suited for this job?

Over the course of our business we realized that what We love, we do WELL! We do it efficiently with minimal effort and maximum results. What we dread we do terribly. We waste tons of time and it turns out less than mediocre. This filtering system changed everything. We were able to build a Yes & No list of job duties. FINALLY I was free to take things off of my plate!!!

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Strangely enough this little list gave me the strength to take my life back.  When it’s written before you somehow there is an accountability that comes and says STOP IT when you try to load on too much again.

It will happen.  Things will come up.  People will ask.  And every time you have a choice.  Do I do this and love it?  Do I do this and regret it?  Or do I simply say No?

I challenge you today.  TAKE. YOUR. LIFE. BACK!  Say no once in a while.  Life is already too crazy and too chaotic to add things on that you don’t love.

Try it!  I dare you!  Make your own list today and see how much of your life is freed up!

Tune in Monday the 12th for our next Business Mommy Monday and Creating a Schedule that works!

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