Motherhod Part II: Work Life Balance

The Spontaneous request

Last week, the spirit of the Lord led me to embark on a 10 days positivity challenge on LinkedIn. I’m glad I obeyed. I have been immersely blessed by this act of obedience. Most importantly people have been blessed. I’ll like to share one of my writeup during the positivity challenge here. As you may already know, the target audience and tone of voice on LinkedIn is different cause it’s a very formal environment.

Day 4 #PositivityChallenge

I have a good ‘Work Life Balance’ which has helped me build capacity. To mark my 3 years anniversary in Promasidor and over 4 years experience in the marketing industry I have embarked on a 10 days positivity challenge. As a perfectionist and my greatest critic, it’s easy to trivialize one’s achievement.

While work life balance is a journey. I can confidently say I have done a really good job. In the past 3 years I haven’t just grown in the workplace, I got married and became a mum. Marriage and motherhood is a project I do not take lightly. Managing this phase as a career woman has helped me build capacity. I’ll share a few things that has helped me on this journey:

1.   Set your KPI- Yes, being a wife and mother is a job. Set your priorities. Integrate this into your work pattern and the peculiarity of your job. Do what works for you. One vision I had for my pregnant self was to ensure I remained true to myself.

2.   Knowledge- As a pregnant career woman, knowledge is vital, I read and asked questions. I also briefed my boss on antenatal classes and reminded him prior to the date. I understood the company policy and took advantage of this.

3.   Eating healthy for my child and I was important to avoid health complications (e.g feeling faint) at work and complications in the future. This paid off.

4.   Dress & look good always. Carry pregnancy like a promotion and award because it is. I have been given a managerial responsibility to manage all facets of an entire human life. I consider it an honour and a badge- P.S I grew into this thou 🙂 that’s why it’s in present tense.

5.   Have good rest. This cannot be over emphasized especially for a pregnant woman.

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6.   Stay Happy. No mood swings. I studied myself and understood the symptoms then used this to my advantage. For example managing morning sickness: In cognizance to the HR policy and one’s boss, if symptoms runs 6am to 8am. Consider staying at home during this period, staying at the office clinic or ladies before going to your desk, basically try to find a conducive place so you can manage yourself without creating a mess. Then leave for work or get to your desk and put in extra hours to make up for time lost.

In summary, I made up your mind to be effective at work regardless. Giving it the best I got. Yes, pregnancy does take its toll on one’s body, mind and activities but basically, I avoided laziness and using pregnancy as an excuse except it was genuine.

Not everyone is aware of the changes or challenges a woman goes through when pregnant. You might need to educate *necessary* stakeholders.

Lastly, no two women are the same. Everyone has different challenges and experiences. Don’t compare.

I would love to hear from women who have been through this journey and how they managed there’s. Feel free to tag and comment. Men your comment and insight is highly valued as well.

Image 1 : Getty Images, Image 2 : Amazon, Image 3: Pinterest, Image 4 : iStock

I Love You

God Bless you