Today, we're tackling the art of balancing mom life and personal goals. I'll share the importance of prioritizing personal aspirations while avoiding self-comparison and achieving that elusive equilibrium.

Feeling overwhelmed and on the brink of burnout? Let's distinguish between motivation and mental capacity. Discover actionable steps to regain control over overwhelm and avoid burnout. Hear stories on conquering tasks that seem insurmountable due to exhaustion and overwhelm.

Struggling with motivation for daily tasks? I've got strategies to share, from breaking tasks into manageable chunks to reigniting your enthusiasm. Plus, we'll explore prioritizing self-care, setting boundaries, and reshaping priorities to maintain discipline and success. Join me!

What you'll hear in this episode:

[1:35] Managing overwhelm and burnout in daily life.

[6:10] Finding motivation to complete daily tasks.

[7:45] Prioritizing self-care and avoiding burnout.

[10:40] Prioritizing tasks and managing overwhelm.

CONNECT WITH KELSEY

Follow Kelsey: @thisiskelseysmith

Follow Momma Has Goals: @mommahasgoals

Download the app for Apple or Android

Learn more at https://thisiskelseysmith.com/

Join our text list. Text "Goals" to (707) 347-0319

Kelsey Smith 0:00

But if you aren't getting done one priority a day and each year buckets for a regular consistent period of time, that's where you have to take a step back and look at yourself and say, okay, am I burnt out? Am I overwhelmed? Do I have a lack of discipline? Level lacking motivation? Where's this coming from? And how do I welcome to mama has goals, your weekly reminder that you shouldn't have to sacrifice your dreams to take on the role of mom. I'm Kelsey Smith, mom of two boys. Why an entrepreneur who's passionate about helping other moms current and aspiring to reimagine mom life. I'm bringing you the resources, support and relatability to debunk that limiting belief that you may have about your ability to achieve your goals while raising a human. We're covering everything from mom guilt, marriage, relationships, careers, finances, mental health, physical health, you name it, your life doesn't have to fully shift once you become a mom, you can have it all. And we'll show you how

Kelsey Smith 1:15

do you ever get annoyed with yourself? I do. I definitely have moments where I'm like, why are you not getting this done faster, better? What is going on? And a friend of mine Keisha get Marissa, who's been on the podcast before she has a saying that she says don't compare a present version of yourself to a past version of yourself when the circumstances were different. And where I think this shows up a lot for our community is maybe seen when we weren't parents or we had less children in our lives or less variables. And we were accomplishing and doing more. Now, where I get really tripped up with this is there are seasons of my life where I had more going on in different ways. And I was getting more done. So that is where I get a little confused with this saying because I'm like, okay, but I was doing more I was getting more done. And now I'm getting less done. And I have less variables. And so where this comes up for me, is this idea of am I unmotivated? Or is there something else going on? There's a lack of motivation, a lack of discipline, a lack of boundaries and principles, or what else is it. And what I've noticed for myself is sometimes it's that but sometimes it is overwhelm and burnout. And this can show up in your job, this can show up in your business, this can show up in motherhood, this can show up in life. And the very first time that I remember feeling burnt out and overwhelmed. I actually recognized it in a personal social setting. So we were committed to something every single weekend. And when I wasn't working, and I wasn't with family, we had an event going on, we had somewhere we were supposed to be a commitment. And we were making food for it or hosting or and there was just always these moving parts. And we were in a season that I felt like we had no downtime, we had no real quality connection. We were constantly working or somewhere else. And I put a halt on this. And luckily this happened around the same time as COVID. So it helped me out to be honest. But I found myself in this place where I was overcommitted burnt out and overwhelmed. And it was even with fun stuff. But it just was in my schedule felt heavy. And so it wasn't that I was lacking motivation to get other things done. Or I was lacking motivation for quality family time or meeting up with friends or having these social gatherings like I wanted that. But also, there was this overwhelming burnout layer, right. And even in my job and my business in moments where I'm realizing I'm actually not being productive, and I'm not getting things done. It's typically not a lack of motivation. Sometimes it is a lack of discipline, and we're going to talk about that. But it's not a lack of motivation. It's a lack of mental capacity and bandwidth alongside the overwhelm and the burnout. So when I noticed this habit of not completing tasks or getting unfocused in different areas, I can now take a step back and say, Okay, what is it that you need to remove or reduce to be able to create more capacity where it needs to be? And that allows me to look at it and not a you did this wrong. You're not motivated. It allows me to be like, Look, you only have so much that you can do and give. So what needs to be reallocated to allow you to focus where you need to focus, and then I'm back in control of that overwhelm, and I'm not burnout And that discipline to create the motivation necessary for what does need to happen. I see the show up for myself a lot in my house. And I can see this a lot with other people I know in our community is let's use the mail, for example, getting mail, you're getting paperwork every day, and you're like, I'm just like, not motivated to go through it. I don't have the motivation to go through it. Is it that you're lacking motivation? Is it that you're lacking discipline of going through it on a regular basis? Or is it because you have so many other things spinning, that is just not a priority, it is not a priority to go through the mail or the paperwork at this point in time, because other things are bigger or more important. And when you do get home, maybe there isn't something more important, but you're exhausted. So you're just sitting down and you don't want to go through paperwork, because you're burnt out, or you're overwhelmed. It's been a long day. And it's usually a combination of kind of all of the above. But if you can take a step back, and question isn't one of those things that it allows you to say, okay, you know what it is that I'm getting home late, and I'm tired it is that when we get in the door, everyone is hungry. So that is not a priority, because I need to get food on the table. It is that I've been going through and reading things all day for work and not as the last thing I want to do when I get home. It is that I need to maybe go through the mail while I'm sitting down rather than standing up because that would be more comfortable for me. How can you make it work because sometimes we have to do things we don't want to do, whether it's going through mail or something else, allowing yourself to figure out how to make it more achievable for yourself and feel more motivated for that task where you're not going to maybe walk in the door and be like, I am so excited to go through mail today. But that it becomes more routine and disciplined alongside no knowing what else you have to get done that day. So if you can go through and you can say okay, every day that I walked through the door, I go through three pieces of mail, rather than the whole pile three pieces, and then I can come back for the rest. But I'm disciplined to go through that three. Or when I come through the door, I'm going to do X y&z First I'm going to change, I'm going to check in with the kids, I'm going to start dinner. And then at this point in time of the night, that's when I'm going to go through the meal, figuring out how to create it within the boundaries that work for you. Because that's where I think sometimes this term of unmotivated can get tripped up, because maybe we're just not motivated in the criteria we've given ourselves, where maybe we can redefine the ability to create success or motivation. And sometimes it's not even motivation, it's execution, because we don't really need to be motivated to go through the mail, but we need to execute it. Right. So what does that look like? And what do we actually do? So another place I see this show up is health. Yeah, and I have constantly talked about how I have not made that a priority in my life. And even today, I went to the gym, I only have 30 minutes. So I was like, I'm gonna go on the treadmill for 30 minutes, and I'm gonna go on an incline and this speed and whatever it is. And as I was walking, I was like, I have so many things I need to be doing. Like I was not motivated to be there. But I made a commitment to be there. Now I started noticing these patterns while I was walking and listening to a podcast and thinking about all the things I needed to do, where I was feeling a little overwhelmed, or maybe burnt out that I had introduced this new activity into my schedule when I already had so many other things I needed to get done. Now, it doesn't mean I'm not motivated to work on my health I am but it's always that but there's these other things that maybe pull from it. So for myself, it's creating that standard or that boundary, that limit that I'm going to allow myself to not forfeit, if you will. So for me today, that was 30 minutes of walking on the treadmill. I said, You know what, there's no reason you can't introduce this into your day. Like when we really think about motivation, burnout and overwhelm, I can make time for this. And here's what I can do while I'm doing it. And here's what's just gonna need to wait and get done later in the day. And how can I shift things to make this a priority? So when you catch yourself feeling unmotivated, it is coming back and saying, Okay, why do I feel like I'm not getting this done? Why is this not a priority? Why am I feeling overwhelmed or burnt out? How can I reshift priorities? How can I change this? And when you're super overwhelmed, and you're super burnout, that feels like the last thing you want to do is start asking yourself all these questions, but unfortunately, you have to, because that's where that discipline please comes back in is. Sometimes it's not about motivation. Sometimes it's about discipline, because if we don't create that discipline, then we don't even allow ourselves to know is this a motivation problem? Is this a suppling problem is this overwhelming burnout. And so I need a break. Because sometimes you just need to be human. And you need to allow yourself to get a break. So you have to evaluate where you're at and what you're doing. So the next time that you find yourself being like, man, you're just not getting this done. You're not prioritizing this. Take a step back and think about okay, what is it? Why are you putting this off? Why are you procrastinating? Why are you feeling unmotivated?

Is it overwhelm? Is it burnout? Is it lack of discipline? What do you need to insert or remove from your day to day in your schedule, to be able to create that success. And it is so much easier if you're following what we've talked about of writing down some daily priorities, because this makes it so much clearer for yourself. Because if you are writing down three daily priorities, and I like to do them one personal one professional, one family priority a day, bare minimum, and if you really are feeling like you need a couple more than no more than three a day in each bucket, but bare minimum one a day in each bucket. And if you're not accomplishing those things, if you can't get those three priorities done a day, that's where you can look at it and say, I only had one thing I had to get done in this bucket today. Why didn't it happen? Did it not happen? Because I wasn't disciplined? Did it not happen? Because there's truly something so far out of my control that happened today that today was just a weird day, then that happens. But if you aren't getting done one priority a day and each year buckets for a regular consistent period of time, that's where you have to take a step back and look at yourself and say, okay, am I burnt out? Am I overwhelmed? Do I have a lack of discipline to have a lack of motivation? Where is this coming from? And how do I fix it, because at the end of the day, sure, if you don't hit a deadline, or you don't get something done around the house, or you forget your kids activity, or assignment or whatever for school, is it affecting other people is, but it's mainly affecting you. So you're really only doing yourself a disservice when you don't take the time to evaluate these things and look at it. And again, when you're overwhelmed, that can feel like a lot, it can feel really stressful. But that's where the discipline comes in of saying, okay, but if I don't evaluate this, I know I'm only going to feel worse. I know that I'm just going to get this snowball built up and rolling down the hill, that is going to be so hard to stop. So how do I fix it where it's at? One priority a day and each year buckets. Evaluate why they're not happening if they're not happening. And if you are feeling overwhelmed or burnt out, allow yourself to take a step back and remove some things out of your life and schedule. And if you need help doing that, find help outsource, communicate to the people in your life and your family. Look for support and friends, either in the mama high schools community or elsewhere to be able to support you if you don't have it, where you're at, and then be able to take action on analyzing where discipline or motivation needs to be inserted. When you put more positive into your life and you put more organization into your life, you can allow for more success and balance in your life. If you're not feeling it, let's add positive, remove stressors and have a better balance of where you're at. All right. I'm sending you so much love mama. It's not that you're just not motivated. There could be other things at play. Evaluate with those are mom in your life that you see and love her by sharing this episode. Giving while your cup is overflowing always pays itself back tenfold when you need it most.