Debunked: you do not have to “earn” time off or taking breaks during your work-at-home day as a CEO mom!

Newsflash: You do not have to “earn” your way to relaxation and time off. Because ease is not being lazy.

Here’s what I’m talking about: “You have to learn to get comfortable with ease.” That’s a quote from Allie Casazza.

But is this a struggle for you?

I’m guessing it is, because I’m a self-driven, high-achieving girl with a family and a business – and I found this a hard concept to wrap my head around at first.

I’d spent 20 years of my life pounding home the theme that discipline wins and work first, play later are the only productivity rules you need to know.

So this? This was paradigm shattering.

And if you’re struggling with this reframe too, let me share what worked for me.

You’ve got this!

Alyssa

De-stress daily life as a work-at-home mom: https://yourunbusylife.com/ 

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Transcript

This is the Unbusy Mom, and today we’re debunking the myth of “earning” time off or taking breaks during your work-at-home day as a CEO mom.

Newsflash: You do not have to “earn” your way to relaxation and time off. Because ease is not being lazy.

Listen, I *love* standing at my kitchen island, looking out the window, in a (relatively) quiet house (when all the kids are busy doing something else and it’s not their regular meal time) with my snack or hot drink on the beautiful, clear space. 

That’s one of the joys of work-from-home entrepreneurship for me - and I make sure to treat myself to it as often as possible. (I.e., a couple times a day.)

Does that make me lazy, that I’m smelling the flowers, not hustling?

Here’s what I’m talking about: “You have to learn to get comfortable with ease.” That’s a quote from Allie Casazza.

But is this a struggle for you?

I’m guessing it is, because I’m a self-driven, high-achieving girl with a family and a business – and I found this a hard concept to wrap my head around at first.

I’d spent 20, 25 years of my life pounding home the theme that discipline wins and work first, play later are the only time management rules you need to know.

So this? This was big. 

This was world shattering. This was paradigm shifting.

At least for an A-student, recovering perfectionist, “do it right or not at all” type of mom. (Aka, me.)

So if you’re struggling with this idea, too, let me share what worked for me.

I took the back door route. 

I cheated my way into it. Instead of persuading my brain that ease and relaxation were permissible for me, I just said I could stop when I was tired.

I didn’t have to *inject* ease into my day; I could just take time off whenever needed, however far I was through my to-do list.

And gradually, as I got used to dropping my chore load the instant I hit that “one straw too many” level of overload and exhaustion, I began to *anticipate* when I normally hit that breaking point.

To establish mid-morning or before-naptime breaks, because I’d spotted a pattern.

And that’s what I want you to do.

Learn from me what NOT to do. Don’t wait till you’re 28, 29, 30 and trying to get a handle on relaxing being okay even if you’re not done for the day, just because you have a low energy slump that day.

It’s okay. 

It’s okay that you feel this way. 

It’s okay that you didn’t wake up with enough energy today.

It’s all okay.

And God knows right where you are, exactly how you’re doing, and precisely how much more you can take.

So don’t you want to let go a little bit, honor the family He’s given you, and stop before you’re one straw too many?

I would. And I’m a lot happier for it.

Which is why I’m constantly reminding YOU inside my coaching program to actually TAKE that 20-minute tea break in the afternoon, or give hourself an extra 5 minutes between client calls to do some stretches ‘cause you’ve been at your desk too long, or trade a little after-supper phone work for getting an entire 40-minute lunchtime to YOURSELF midday.

And yes, these can all be scheduled into your planner and CEO time blocks – but you actually need to fully, wholeheartedly, give yourself the PERMISSION to take this kind of “multiple daily breaks” first. THEN you’ll actually show up for your designated break times. All right?

Once you learn that you don’t need to earn time off, that you don’t need to “deserve” taking it easy (usually by checking off 2 days’ worth of to-do lists), then you’ll truly start enjoying your mom life.

Because you’re not pushing yourself so darn hard every minute, every hour, every second of the day. 

Try it. See what you think. Because ease is not being lazy.