No matter who you are, if you ever succeed at work-life balance, you are a superhero. Don’t look outside yourself for Superwoman. Recognize that you, just as you are, is what superheroes aspire to be.
It is fantastic to realize that when it comes to work-life balance you can succeed by being your own superhero. When my oldest daughter was a little girl she watched a movie from the Cheetah Girls with words to a song something similar to this:
I don’t want to be like Cinderella
Sitting alone in a dark dusty cellar
Waiting for somebody
To come and rescue me
I’d rather rescue myself
When I think about all working women do to run businesses, work jobs, manage families and find time for themselves, I am reminded of this song. Almost every day there are articles in blogs, newspapers, magazines, and conversations on television about the struggle to balance work and life. After years of research on this topic, I have come to realize there is no quick fix, there is no one size fits all solution.
If you are struggling to find a way to balance your duties as an entrepreneur, wife, mother, sister, friend, and independent woman, stop looking outside yourself for a solution. Instead, recognize the superhero inside yourself. It is inside you that you will find the solution. I have my own definition for the word superhero:
Superwoman: noun
1. wife
2. mom of 4
I am Janeane Davis. I describe myself as a Superwoman, aka a wife and mother of four. I am an African-American consultant and magazine publisher whose mission is to inspire, encourage, and motivate women to be their best in business and at home.
If you pay careful attention to these words, you will notice that my definition of superwoman aka superhero is different from any other you have read before. I define the term for myself and describe what makes me feel super. In my world, being a happily married woman for almost 25 years and raising four wonderful children while running a business, and finding ways to encourage, inspire and motivate other women to be their best at home and work makes me a superhero. It means I do great things and have the capacity to do even more.
So often I hear women say they are not superheroes. Each time I hear those words, I wish I could scream at them, “Yes, you are a superwoman, you are a superhero!” I want to shout those words because according to my definition, if you a responsible for a business, a family, and yourself, you are indeed a superhero. You need to recognize that, appreciate it, and live it. Do not live under the traditional definition of a superhero. Instead, look at yourself, look at your life and find the wonderful qualities you have and what makes you special and unique..When you have identified this, you have found the superhero inside you.
When trying to balance work life, look inside to your own strengths, your own sources of power. Use those things to feel satisfied about the job you do when you are at your best. I say it often in these pages because it is true, I am a church girl. The church girl inside me tells me that I have the power of God inside me and that I am the child of The King. This means that since I am created in the image of God, I have something super, special, wonderful, and powerful inside me. It means I am a superwoman, a superhero.
[Tweet “Never sell yourself short, if you are working to balance work and life you really are a superwoman!”]
Even if you do not share my faith, sit back and recognize the super, special, wonderful, and powerful inside yourself. Recognize that you can do what you want. You can balance what needs to be balanced. Do not spend time thinking about your failures and the times you did not balance well. Instead, look at what you do well and build upon that. Look at yourself as a superwoman, a superhero. This point of view will encourage you, inspire you and motivate you to continue to seek work-life balance. A superwoman, a superhero can do anything she sets her mind to do. You can succeed at the work-life balance struggle when you start to recognize the superwoman and superhero inside you.
In conclusion, it is fantastic to realize that when it comes to work-life balance you can succeed by being your own superhero. So, the question for you this fantastic day is, when are you going to recognize the superhero inside you?
Bernetta, super heroes get sidekicks!
Yes! I’m that mom that has been trying to do it all. It can be tough. I will be honest, I couldn’t do it without the help of my husband.
Yes, Christine, that is what I was trying to communicate, make your own definition of superwoman and live it. Do not try to live someone else’s defintion. It is a juggling act, but we are all jugglin different things and have different methods that work in our lives.
It is very important to have a work life balance. I think that women tend to be very hard on themselves and try to do it all.
I love the opening quote. I sometimes feel as though I fail at the balance. There is always so much to do and there never seems to be enough hours in the day.
If your kids are feel loved are getting the guidance they need and you’re meeting your work goals, I’d say you’re ahead of the game!
Worklife balance is such a hard thing to achieve. For moms, it’s especially hard. Thanks for the inspirational post (as always).
I could NOT agree more! Sometimes I marvel at what I get done in a day (and I often have to remind myself to look at what I did rather than what I didn’t do!) And btw, you’re tweet plugin just worked. I tweeted solely based on how easy and accessible that was!
Great post, very encouraging. I do struggle myself. With 5 kids, homeschooling, blogging and caring for our home there is a lot on my plate – still trying to balance it all! It is a juggling act for sure!
You are always so full of advice. Your writing makes me pause and think about life. Balance is so important.
I personally don’t use the term “superwoman” or “supermom” only because of what it implies to most people which is the fact that “oh she can handle it all by herself and never needs any help”, which can’t be further from the truth. But I like the fact that you stress the importance of defining your OWN definition of superwoman because just like parenting, it’ll be different for everyone. I think the true superwoman knows when she needs a break or needs to ask for help 🙂 It’s definitely a juggling act.
Great post Janeane! Much love to all the super hero moms out there. I didn’t understand the importance of balance at one point, I thought it was a boring. Now I understand balance brings peace. I think as busy entrepreneurs, we need that peace.
I’ve definitely found a pretty good balance. It took me a very long time though!
You got that right! The balance and super hero status will look different for each of us. It’s also a great reminder to to compare ourselves to each other but be content in OUR OWN journey. Thank you, Janeane.
I believe the keys to doing this well is balance and boundaries. Thanks for inspiring many women who find themselves in similar situations.
I totally agree that we should definitely spend more time acknowledging and praising ourselves and all that we do.
I read something today where they guy said that he likes to call it work life harmony and i really connected to that because harmony may not always present itself the way we think it should but when we recognize it, it is as it should be.
It’s all about balancing everything out, you can’t do everything; there is no problem with asking for help!
Great way to define a superwoman. The quote is so true….Never sell yourself short
Love this. I define myself as a superwoman as well. Juggling all that I juggle AND staying sane takes nothing less than supernatural powers!
What a great way to define what a superhero is. I think we are all superheros in our own way and the most important thing is to balance life.
What a great reminder!
Janeane, thanks for the important reminder for all of superhero superwomen out here! I love your focus on balance.
You are totally a superhero! Thanks for encouraging all of us to be one too!
Yes, when you look back at what you have done, it is incredible and should make you smile. You are also blessed to have a great support network, it is a rare and precious treasure.
Yes, when you look back at all you have done, with the tools at your disposal, sometimes you just have to say, “Wow, I really am good!”
Yes! We should not rain on our own parades! We must learn to balance our lives not some mythical perfect life.
We have to recognize our greatness and appreciate it. Sometimes, no one else will recognize who we are and what we do. So we must appreciate it ourselves.
Love this, I sometimes say I must think I’m superwoman trying to do all the things I do (teacher, travel blogger/writer/student)….then I remind myself you know what I’m not trying I’m Doing it! I’m grateful to have a great support network too!
Awesome post. Always believe in yourself. You can depend on you.
Great post!
This is such a great post. I have definitely been feeling overwhelmed during this holiday season. I’m not feeling particularly “super” at the moment. This is a good reminder to think about all of the things I have accomplished though.
Janeane you got me again! This piece speaks to my heart. I confess, sometimes I don’t feel like superwoman but now that you break it down like this I am a superwoman. Thank you for taking the definition of superwoman to a higher level!
The first part of the quote is exception poignant, “never sell yourself short”. One of the many flaws of driven people is downing our talents. I have to be reminded to never rain on my own parade. Secondly, balance is such a difficult task but it has to be done. When things are misaligned, nothing feels good.
I struggle to keep balance. I will keep working, though.
Balance, especially around the Holidays can be hard… That is why I try to have my family help me.