“Don’t confuse having a career with having a life.” – Hillary Rodham Clinton
Having a career is a part of life, not life itself! Integration of all the aspects of life; work, health, relationships, interests and spiritual growth etc make work even more meaningful. They all are interconnected. For example-
- Work and relationship – we work to provide people we care about. Also we go back to relationship to bring harmony and flow in work. Stress at work place transcends at home. Stress at home transcends at work.
- Work and health – We function well due to physical as well as mental health and wellness.
- Work and spiritual growth – We learn, practice and apply spiritual principles in our work and derive a purpose and goals with it. We seek to align our work to fulfill our purpose.
- Work and interest – We aspire to achieve the space of work which reflects with our interests. Growing in area of interest brings satisfaction.
By the top findings of a report by Working Mother Media, which examined the attitudes of millennials, where Baby Boomers were career-conscious, Gen X couples held it together by being two earners as well as two households, and millennials are open to step in and out of their careers with pauses, without being stigmatized for it. Millennials scored highest, over Gen Xers and baby boomers, when asked whether they believe one should stay home to care for the children: 60% percent of millennials said yes, vs. 55% for boomers and 50% for Gen Xers. – By Jennifer Owens, editorial director of Working Mother Media.
For women, from different era and even now, it continues to switch different aspects of life. All three generations have different challenges to manage the switch. Here are Quick Tips for Millennial women to deal with current scenarios.
Here are Quick Tips for Millennial women to deal with current scenarios.
- Cultivate vision and purpose for your life: You may already know what you want to do now. To figure out what next, create vision; anticipate the contingencies in all aspects of life. Integrate different tasks to your purpose. Add plans to your dreams.
- Assert your boundaries: Set different boundaries for different tasks, to people’s expectations and also to your satisfaction. Assert yourself for your limits and articulate your extensions. Practice feeling content with yourself instead of feeling guilty. It is okay to not own what you don’t own, especially when you keep going beyond your capacity to fulfill constant demands against your desires.
- Spend time alone: Slow down and gather your thoughts to connect dots. Remind yourself to remain focused and align to the larger purpose. Let subconscious mind resolve the unrealized. Practice it daily for an hour. Get comfortable first with yourself, your thoughts and disturbances. This time will expand your vision, enhance awareness and add insights. “It is not the schedule which is killing you. It is just that you are horribly preoccupied with your thoughts and emotions.” – Sadhguru
- Sort your priorities: Know what important vs Urgent tasks are and goals to you. A daily practice would help plan your next day in advance, also a week in advance. It can also help periodically realign your focus on your larger purpose.
- Use of gadgets: Keep your all gadgets away for at least an hour a day. Do what is needful vs. what is desired. Social media is desired entertainment as well as a lot unproductive time-consuming space. Television can be used to spend time with family, instead of just sitting in front of idiot box. Drop the watch when you face time anxiety. Optimize the use of gadgets. At the same time, there are some apps, which can help you align your day with task reminders, Week planners, Cutoff apps (for focusing on work), time trackers, and manage expenses etc.
- Significance of Passive income: Do think and generate even smallest income from other than your main stream time-consuming profession. Consider generating income from smallest investment in financial funds to utilizing your hobbies, ideas and passive income methodologies. Keeping in mind the current era of constant survival issues, try and keep several small sources of income. Let not the insecurity of the job competitions distract you from your purpose.
- Know what influences you: Recognize and control positive and negative influences. Don’t let corporate culture; competitions and comparisons impact you beyond your focused vision and purpose. Know which “influences” can sidetrack you from what you want to be and make you do what others want you to be. Influences can vary from praises to criticism, consumerism to recognition, and many more. They are born from various needs we have. For e.g Need to achieve, need to be noticed, need for affiliation, need for autonomy, need for deference, need for dominance, need for recognition etc.
- Be open to uncertainty: to what’s possible: Off Balance, on purpose is launching yourself into uncertainty, when you necessarily can’t even see where you are going, with energy and with commitment and with drive. Comfortable makes you deny yourself for what’s possible. If you are unwilling to lean into the uncertainty, you are apprehensive about change and growth. You may start even going backwards, or would just remain stagnant.
- Ask for help: Despite the independence you have achieved, it is okay to take help and support. Healthier environment is when the stress levels are manageable. Before you lose yourself, or even after, ask for support from the reliable ones in the organization and also from your significant others.
- Invest in empowering the independence of your dependents: Teach your dependent parents and kids, how to use gadgets for fulfilling their necessities and functionality. Create systems and train your dear ones to manage themselves.
- Use leaves more thoughtfully: Utilize your leaves for all genuine concerns for the monthly menstrual issues, family or festive reasons to take breaks you need. Plan them where you can. It would help you stay aligned with work and life aspects too.
- Don’t wait for things to align: Start doing what you actually wish to manage in all the aspects of life. Start spending time on what you always wished to do to balance beyond work, but you never did.
Dear women, you can reach beyond our current level of excellence. In order to do that, you don’t have to be balanced. Embrace uncertainty with clear objectives, clear targets, realizing its just one thing at a time, just one moment. Be present where you are and yet need to let go “The idea of perfect balance” and grab onto living off balance and on purpose.
You can do and be so much more than you ever imagined. Allow yourself to reach your truest potential. Most importantly, enjoy the ride!
ORGANIZATIONS ARE CONSTANTLY STRUGGLING TO RETAIN TALENTED AND HARDWORKING MILLENNIAL WOMEN.
Here are few tips for them to consider and adapt suitable solutions.
- Customize environment to retain potential employees: Organization may provide standard facilities to all employees. At the same time, it can also be customized with innovative solutions for variety of issues like family issues, divorce, IVF processes, pregnancy issues, menstrual issues or managing toddlers etc. The focus for creating such environment should remain on making women’s work-life aligned to their purpose.
- Listening Pole: Organization should have a listening pole or mentors defined to the women who need support. There are times, when positive conversations, guidance or support is all what women may need.
- Create healthy competition: Competition is said to be healthy when it drives a person to do better than his/her old self. The current competitive corporate cultures need to be revised into more satisfactory environment.
- Technology to work remotely: For a new mother, organization can map few relevant and possible roles which can be operated remotely based on technology, for a limited period of time. It may include altering responsibility for a new mom.
- Smooth transition after maternity leave: Organization can consider several flexi time adjustments along with understanding some sudden requirements when women need it after maternity leave. Flexible working culture is the need of the hour. 6. Era for paid paternity leave: Organizations are aware of the significance of two parents surviving with a living. Especially when they are new parents, it requires father’s time and support with paid leave for a couple of months. It can be kept flexible as per requirements and eligibility, for both the parents.
Author- Gopika Gajaria is Psychologist & Founder – Psyn Assessments. She is a visionary, unconventional and culturally driven passionate psychologist. In 15 years of experience in the space of Organizational Development & Leadership Development, she has played significant roles in developing systems that enhance ROI for leading multinational companies across industries. She has led assessment and coaching systems for thousands of people across diverse leadership & managerial profiles. She has worked with Aditya Birla group, Tata group, Mahindra group, Reliance Group, and Essar Group of company.