It is when you attempt to replace
the missing piece of Leadership that the rubber meets the
road for becoming CEO of your own life. I use the CEO analogy
heavily not because we all desire to be corporate bulldogs,
but because, like a CEO, when you stay home with children
these days you are in a similar position to the chief executive
officer of a company. Your goals and deadlines aren't set
for you. Nobody is looking over your shoulder to monitor your
progress. You're free to succeed (or fail) by your own devices.
By replacing the missing pieces in your life you will find
more fulfillment at home than you ever dreamed of having in
a career -- but it's up to you to keep yourself motivated
to make it happen, to take charge of your life and push ahead,
even when it'd be a whole lot easier to just flip on the television
and do the minimum.
Anticipate bad days
Keep in mind that the wonderful changes you're going to see
in your life do not mean that every day is going to be perfect.
New friends won't return phone calls. The kids will be unruly
and fussy. Your efforts toward completing a goal will be thwarted.
Anticipate days like this, and have a plan for how you'll
handle it when it happens.
Remember that you're the CEO of your life and your family.
And, like the CEO of any organization, just throwing your
hands up and feeling dejected when things get frustrating
isn't an option. Diagnose the problem, take action, and keep
moving forward.
Create three-month projects
As I mentioned in the section on setting
goals, while it's important to have long-term goals for
your life, it's even more important to have short-term goals
that you actually accomplish. When you're
outside of the workforce it can often feel like you're not
"doing anything". Even if you fully recognize that
you're doing something extremely important by staying home
with your kids, you can still miss the satisfaction of seeing
the results of completing short-term projects like you did
when you had a job.
The satisfaction of wrapping up a project you designed for
yourself three months ago, being able to check it off as "done,"
having tangible results of your efforts for the past three
months, will give you a much-needed confidence boost and the
energy to keep yourself motivated to go on to even more exciting,
challenging goals. In fact, I think this concept is so important
that I've given it its own section, here.
<< Replacing Missing
Piece #4: Money
|
