If you're a mompreneur (mama + a maker), chances are you are completely DONE when you make it through your family's bedtime routine.
At the end of a particularly long day (aren't they all during quarantine?!?), I try to think back on how I utilized my strengths during the day. Don't get me wrong, some days I am WAY too tired for reflection, lol, I just want to binge my favorite show in bed.
But some days stand out - days when there's lots to do at home, with homeschool, with my clients, and for my business - and I feel energized. These are typically the days when I've operated in what I'm best at and was rewarded along the way with a sense of accomplishment!
**queue forever-FLOTUS happy dance**
We are all currently juggling so much (mentally, emotionally, and commitment wise). And until things change, YOU have to change. Taking a strengths-based approach to your day will help you more consistently arrive at the happy-place that I refer to as "in the zone".
What is a strengths-based approach you ask?
A strengths-based approach means focusing on what you naturally do well, rather than focusing on what you feel you're lacking, or areas where you struggle.
The beauty is each of us has areas where we are naturally talented. Below are my four tips for spending your days living in your strengths, so that you can mom, and make, like a boss!
1. Pay Attention to When You Feel "In The Zone"
This step takes time and being intentional, but once you've found it, you'll realize that it was so worth the investment of your time to figure it out!
This is the place where your talent meets your passion meets your dedication. This is the place that you feel a sense of accomplishment and energy after doing it.
I talk all about how to find your passion and narrow in on your "in the zone" place here.
What is that place for you?
2. Plan Your Day With Your Strengths in Mind
You probably hate being reminded of the saying, "fail to plan, plan to fail" as much as I do, lol, but it's so true.
With the talent theme of Discipline as one of my top five natural talents, planning comes to me fairly easily.
Learn more about this theme in this video by Gallup!
I leverage my Discipline theme ALL of the time to help me be successful, particularly in times when I feel like things are super chaotic or out of my control - I can typically reign things back in by laying down some structure through planning out a task , or planning out my day/week.
If you're currently using a planner, put a spin on it. As you add each item to your list, think about what talents you have (how you approach tasks successfully, vs the task itself), and apply a talent to how you'll execute the task. Here's an example:
To Do: Strength I'll use How will it help me
Organize pantry Strategic Be creative & efficient
Conduct discovery calls Individualization Ask intentional questions
By thinking about how your strengths will help you thrive at each task, you can start to zero in on not necessary what you do well, but how you can do all things well!
If you're not currently planning out your day or week, here is some strategy insight on how to audit and use your time as you make time for your creative passions.
3. Avoid Weakness-Fixing
This is a hard one because many of us were raised to be "well-rounded". Anything other than straight A's was unacceptable - sound familiar? In my house growing up, it was assumed that if I was getting an A in English, then I was capable of getting A's in every subject.
Wrong.
It meant that concepts and tasks in my English classes came to me naturally, and I enjoyed them. Chemistry, Biology, and Geometry....not so much, lol. So the notion that I needed to be as good in the areas where I struggled, as I was in the area that came so easily to me set me up for MAJOR failure.
We need to be allowed to focus on what we're good at, and spend as much time as we can there.
Imagine how much more we could improve in our areas of natural talent, if we stopped wasting that time trying to be perfect in all areas at once!
Focusing on our strengths doesn't mean ignoring our areas of weakness.
IT MEANS:
💪🏾Being keenly aware of both our weaknesses AND talents.
💪🏾 Knowing that we will never eliminate weaknesses by trying to make comparable efforts to improve in these areas - no matter how hard you work, you will not turn natural weaknesses to natural talents.
💪🏾Managing and working around areas of weakness, instead of trying to turn them into strengths.
4. Leverage The Strengths of Others
We sometimes think that those we spend our days with (the team, our family, our colleagues, our friends, our clients) need us to show up and do whatever we can to help save the day. This is so false! How can we possibly show up and know how to save the day someone else's way?
Think of the Avengers. When they arrive on scene, do they discuss what needs to be done, and then draw straws as to who's going to do it? I imagine something like this:
Captain America: Hey Tony, do you think you can web up this guy's hands?
Ironman: I don't have web, but I have my repulser beams! I could use those, but they would kill him....we just want to detain him.
LOl, ridiculous, right?
When they arrive on scene, they need Hulk to smash, they need Spider-Man to web sling, and they need Captain America to handle diplomacy. VERSUS, Hulk to be in charge of politics, Tony to catch things in a web, or Black Panther in the lab engineering technology!
Or maybe this example hits closer to home! If the SATC gals needed PR done, they wouldn't ask Charlotte, they'd send in Samantha. And if they needed a lawyer, they wouldn't send in Carrie, they'd send Miranda!
Yes, they're all fabulous, but they have such different attributes, passions, and talents. And they never switch up!
Teams need each player to show up consistently and deliver on their area of talent, skill, and expertise 100 % of the time.
So, you may not have a certain skill, but that WON'T stop you from being a successful entrepreneur. You have to focus less on what you feel you're lacking, and focus instead on what you do have, while partnering to build a supportive network who knows and understands your strengths, and can help you leverage them to be successful.
This is where coaches come in! With me as their creative coach, my clients get the tools I use to strategize successfully in my business working on their behalf, as well as the accountability and support they need while they implement those tools.
If you're in need of a coach to support you in the areas where you're unsure how to strategize and move forward in business while leveraging your strengths, let me help you!
You want to start your creative business. You have no clue where to start. You're stuck feeling as though you'll never be successful simply because you don't understand your secret sauce yet. Some of you don't even realize that you have a secret sauce.
So you're exhausted from trying to show up as Carrie and can't figure out why you feel like you're failing. It's because you're meant to show up as YOU! Your business is waiting on you to lean into who you naturally are - THAT'S your key to success in your business.
Have you paid attention to when you feel "in the zone"? I'd love to hear how you know when you're there!
