Intentional Motherhood – The Problems of Being an ATM Machine

I often used to wonder about balance, and it’s still one of the questions I get asked the most. How do you balance being a CEO and being a mommy? How do you handle having a husband who is also your coworker? How do you balance all these different aspects of life and not fall apart?

First I had to identify the demands. There’s two major types of demands; spoken and unspoken. A spoken demand is when I’m rushing to an important meeting and my little girl says, “Mommy, please stay home with me today.” An unspoken demand is when that same little girl is sick in the morning, and I have to decide if I’m going to stay home and nurse her, or go meet my business deadlines. Both of them are constant occurrences, and if you can’t manage your response, they’ll drain you.

I learned early on that I had to stop being an ATM. Think about ATMs for a minute. They aren’t placed at random; in fact, they’re placed very meticulously in order to get the most business. ATMs are always where ever it’s easiest for people to make a withdraw, and you usually find them very close to where people need extra money, like a mall or a gas station. As a woman, it’s easy to find yourself in the situation where you’ve become an ATM, and you give out hundreds of withdrawls, but you never make any deposits. The problem with that is that ATMs don’t make money, they only store it. So if you aren’t getting deposits, very soon you’ll have no more to give. In order for me to give my family what they need of me, and my businesses, and my life, I have to make sure I’m getting deposits, and the right kind.

Ask yourself, what excites you? What gives you life? What activity rejuvenates you and makes you more ready to face the day? It doesn’t have to be amazing, it just has to deposit something in you. For me, it’s comedy. I love good, pee your pants, roll out of your chair and gasp for air because you’re laughing too hard comedy. I always schedule a time in my week or month where I can just sit and have a comedy night, because it boosts me up! Laughing reminds me that I love what I do. It isn’t selfish to do something you love, it’s sensible. You can’t give what you don’t have, so if you don’t have rest and peace, neither will your family or your employees or your friends. Take charge of your own life, and make some room today to stop giving withdrawls and start getting deposits.

~Christine Gibbs