Work Life Balance Tip: Plant a Seed

Gardening has been very much on my mind over the weekend, as I spent a number of wonderful hours putting in seeds and new plants for the summer months. It was wonderful to be working outside in the sun for a few hours.

Today's work life balance tip is about planting seeds. Just as with gardening, creating what we want in our lives and works often requires a lot of pre-work. The soil needs to be prepared, and seeds need to be planted. They may take a few weeks to sprout and even longer to bear fruit. The same thing can be said regarding our personal and business goals.

What seeds do you want to plant for future harvest? What do you need to prepare in your inner garden? What weeds are still around? Are all the necessary ingredients there for successful growth? What steps can you take this week to prepare your garden and plant your seeds?

I hope that you find this metaphor useful. I'd welcome hearing what seeds you want to plant in your garden for summer harvest.

Don't forget -- Tuesday evening (May 29th) I'll be doing a one hour free call on Assessing the State of Balance in Your Life. The call will run from 8-9 pm ET. The bridgeline for the call is (218) 486-1300, access code 957103. Participants are responsible for their own long-distance charges. Looking forward to speaking with you tomorrow evening! Next month's free call will be held on June 25th from 8-9pm (ET).

Have a balanced week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960

The next 90 Day Your Balanced Life program starts July 17th and runs to mid-October. Reserve your space today!

Tuesday May 29th Call - Assessing Balance in Your Life

The 90 Day Your Balanced Life! program kicked off earlier this week with great energy and fanfare. If you couldn't join us for this session, the next 90 Day Your Balanced Life program will start on July 21st and will run until mid-October. This program includes bi-weekly group calls focusing on balance issues and group coaching, in addition to 3 monthly individual coaching calls with me. The July session will be meeting on Tuesdays from 8-9 pm (EST). The program costs $297 US, or $119 US per month. Prices will be going up after this program, so I hope that you will consider grabbing one of the 10 spaces available for this program. To register, click here (you will see the PayPal link at the bottom) or call me toll free at 1-866-217-1960.



On Tuesday May 29th I will be offering a one hour call on Assessing the Level of Balance in Your Life from 8-9 pm (ET). To register for this call, please email me at info@potentialsrealized.com with May 29th in the subject line. You will receive the brigeline information for this call. This is part of a monthly series of free calls I will be offering over the summer, with different monthly calls being held on the following dates:

Monday June 26th (8-9pm ET): Creating Balance for the Summer Months
Monday July 23rd (8-9pm ET): Creating a Powerful Vision of Balance
Monday August 27th (8-9pm ET): Powerful Time Management Tools for Balance

Please mark these dates off on your calendar. To reserve your spot for any, or all of them, please email me with the date of the call or topic in the subject line.

Have a balanced week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, CPCC, CHRP, CPT
Potentials Realized
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960
Email: jennifer[at]potentialsrealized[dot]com

Podcast : Work Life Balance for Working Moms

I had a wonderful call this evening on Work Life Balance for Working Moms. For those of you who could not make it, a podcast of the first 15 minutes of the call is now available here:


I hope that you will enjoy it!

In Work-Life Balance Tips for Moms, I speak about the latest Mothers Day Poll 2007 from Workopolis and CareerBuildit.com (as blogged about earlier this week). I also speak about five tips for work-life balance for working moms.

I hope that you enjoy the podcast, and will consider joining me for the next 90 Day Your Balanced Life! Program which starts on Tuesday May 22nd (Tuesdays 8-9pm EST) and runs until late July. The next 90 Day Your Balanced Life Program will start on Tuesday July 21st and run until the end of September meeting on Tuesdays from 7-8pm EST. The cost of the 3 month program is $297 US and includes 7 hours of group calls and a monthly 40 minute group coaching call.

I would welcome your comments on the podcast -- please feel free to leave your thoughts!

Have a balanced week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, CPCC, CHRP, CPT
Potentials Realized
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960
Email: jennifer[at]potentialsrealized[dot]com

How far can you bend?

How far can you bend?

Have you ever felt like this photo? I think that it's an amazing representation of just how much we can bend and still remain upright, even when we think we can't.

A lot of the impact of balance, or lack of balance, is the perspective we are in. What's your perspective today about your to-do list, what you have on your plate, and the time you have available?

Is it out of control, or prehaps something else?

I personally have been having several busy weeks, and it does not look like it is going to get any slower, so I am stepping into this perspective of graceful, balanced bending.

What's your take on perspectives as it comes to balance? What do you see in the photo?

If you are a mom, and would like some tips on work-life balance, don't forget to join me Wednesday evening (tomorrow May 16th) at 7pm (EST) for a free one-hour call on work-life balanced tips for mom. Email me with "work life balance May 16" in the header. Looking forward to having you on the call!

With best wishes,

Jennifer

Potentials Realized

90 Day Your Balanced Life teleseminar program starts next week - May 22nd. Space Still remains!

Work Life Balance for Moms

Work Life Balance for Moms


Mother's Day is just around the corner, and it is a fitting time to celebrate all of us who are mom's. If you are a mom, I hope that you will have a wonderful weekend!

I wanted to shine the spotlight on some excellent articles and research findings that have just come out regarding work-life balance for moms.

Workopolis has just released it's annual Mother's Day poll which had some interesting findings. Overall they state, "Too often, mothers are forced to choose between putting in the long hours to meet deadlines and watching their daughter's debut in the schoool play".

* 27% of working mothers surveyed feel that their number one challenge is time away from their family.
* One in ten respondents mentioned being taken seriously as a working mother is a challenge
*25% of reponsdents report that their employers don't offer any options to ease the transition beack to work for female employees after maternity leave.

A number of employers in Canada are offering several solutions for working moms:
* 48% of respondents mention that their employers provide flexible working hours
* Job Sharing (14%)
* Provision of portable technologies (Blackberry, laptops) - 13%
* Working from home - 9%
* On site daycare - 6%

Workopolis indicates that the following factors would make working life more managable from the perspective of working moms:
* Flexible working hours
* On-site daycare
* Ability to work from home on occasion

Tips to Make it Work include:
* Build a support structure (See my post on support structures for goals a few weeks ago)
* Leverage technology to work for you
* Work for a family-friendly workplace
* Don't be afraid to say "no" (See my post on boundaries in January)

Click here for more information about the Workopolis survey:
NewsWire

CareerBuilder.com in the US has released another survey and found the following results:
* 44% of the mothers surveyed would take a pay cut to spend more time with their children
*23% surveyed indiatd tht they had missed three or more significant events in their children's lives in the last year
* Half would quit their jobs if their spouse made enought money "for the family to live comfortably"
* Work follows moms home : 31% of American mothers reported that they take work home at least once a week, and 17% take work home at least three times per week.

For articles on the CareerBuilder.com study, visit the Wall Street Journal Online

For moms out there, I will be doing a one hour free call on Work-Life Balance Tips for Moms on Wednesday May 16th at 7pm (EST). If you'd like to join me please email me at info@potentialsrealized.com with Work Life Balance May 16th in the header . During this call I will be sharing some tips and tools for work life balance for moms. I hope that you can join me. Note: the bridgeline is located in the US - participants are responsible for their own long distance charges.

Have a balanced weekend,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, CPCC, CHRP, CPT
Potentials Realized
90 Day Your Balanced Life! program starts May 22nd -- click here for more information
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960
Email: jennifer[at]potentialsrealized[dot]com

Recovering After Loss: Hawaiian Grief Wellness Cruise

A wonderful talented colleage of mine, Sheila Christianson, a Grief Wellness Coach and Certified Grief Recovery Specialist, has an exciting program planned for September 2007. She is hosting a Hawaiian Grief Wellness Cruise is primarily for people who are ready to explore the self-discovery and transformation that follows loss. Typically, they are ready to move forward and looking for a supportive way to do this! If you, or someone you know, has experienced a loss and is looking for support, I hope that you will consider her program.

Here's some information about her program:

"Are you grieving the loss of someone you love? Are you looking for a
nurturing vacation to get away from it all, to gain perspective in your life
and to find a way to come to terms with what has happened? Do you find
yourself searching for additional help and you aren’t finding the
support you need? If so, consider our Hawaiian Grief Wellness
Cruise!We invite you to join us for a unique opportunity to explore
your grief process and enjoy the tropical warmth nd tranquil beauty of
the Hawaiian Islands aboard Norwegian Cruise Line’s “The Pride of
Aloha”. We will visit four amazing islands – Oahu, Kauai, Maui, and
“The Big Island” of Hawaii – on a 7 day cruise from September 2 - 9 2007."

Onboard the cruise, Sheila will be co-hosting a series of 1 1/2 hour workshops for participants with Susan Balkman, a Liscenced Therapist. You can download a flyer regarding the cruise, here.

Sheila has navigated her own loss and transformation after losing her husband to ALS at a very young age. She has a wonderful story, The Secret Beach, on her website which I hope that you will read, and will be publishing a book about their experience in the near future.

You can contact Sheila at www.sheilachristianson.com.

With best wishes,

Jennifer

Work Life Balance Tip - Focus

This week's work life balance tip is on focus. By focus, I mean focus on the task at hand. I was reminded about this important tip last night as Hellen Buttigieg and I facilitated the first evening of our Get Organized! Virtual Retreat.

We live in a world today of multi-tasking, being bombarded by email, the phone, and many other distractions. How often do you truly focus on just what's at hand?

I'd like you to try a little exercise in the coming days. Take a task that you really want to accomplish (something that can be done in say a couple of hours or less), and for that time, just focus on the task at hand. Turn off the phone, unplug the Blackberry, and just focus on the task at hand. I'd be interested in hearing how you find the experience. Did it go quicker? Was it easier than you had expected?

For those of you who are business owners, you may want to visit this other post I wrote earlier this year at my BizToolkit blog - The Power of Focus.

Take time this weekend and next week to focus at the task at hand. What's it like?


With best wishes,
Jennifer


Jennifer Britton, CPCC, CHRP, CPT
Potentials Realized
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960
Email: jennifer[at]potentialsrealized[dot]com

Recharge Your Batteries with me this Saturday!

Spring is really starting to spring in my neck of the woods, and spring fever has taken hold of my son who wants to always be outdoors. When was the last time you have recharged your batteries? Ask yourself, where is your energy level right now?

In speaking with a number of associates and clients over the last few days, I realize that many of us, myself included, have been running on full-tilt since the start of the new year. Energy stocks are lower than usual. What will you be doing this weekend to recharge?

If you are looking for a structure to recharge this weekend I hope that you will consider joining me on Saturday May 5th for the Your Balanced Life! Virtual Retreat. From 10 - 4 pm (EST) that day, we will be spending the day retreating virtually from our own homes, reconnecting with those things most important in our lives. We "meet" hourly by phone, connecting for about 20 minutes to undertake a group exercise, and then spend the remaining part of the hour retreating individually at our own locations offline, doing some individual inner work.

The program also includes a 30 minute coaching session with me which can be scheduled anytime in the month after the retreat. Participants will also receive a virtual retreat manual by email, which they will use throughout the day of the program. The cost for this program is $97 US (plus any long distance charges retreatants have to connect with the telephone bridgeline in the US). For frequently asked questions about virtual retreats and how they work, please click here.

I hold the Your Balanced Life! virtual retreats every quarter and participants have joined me from around the world. To downoad the Your Balanced Life! Virtual Retreat registration form, please click here. You can also register by PayPal at the web page. I'd love to have you join me on May 5th, to renew, recharge and refocus.

With best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, CPCC
Potentials Realized
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960
Email: jennifer[at]potentialsrealized[dot]com