Finance Monthly August 2019 Edition

received?”. “Not to plan my family around my career”, she replied. As someone who has four children, including twins, this made me smile although you don’t need to have kids to love and appreciate family. We need to be careful how we judge success because so often we create problems for ourselves because we are unrealistic and feel duty-bound to overachieve, such is the problem with alpha women. In terms of actionable tips to create more time, energy, impact and happiness, I’ve focussed on some key areas below. Sleep: • Create a sanctuary in your bedroom. • Beware of blue light from screens. • Soak in an aromatherapy bath. • Eat no food after 8:00 PM. • Read. • Enjoy silence. • Allow time for reflection. Self-Awareness: • Create space for yourself. • Practice mindfulness. • Keep a journal. • Master the art of listening. • Gain different perspectives. • ‘Flip’ your limiting beliefs. • Identify your values. • Trust your intuition. Enrichment: • Stop, retreat and renew. • Respect the necessity of taking a break. • Be kind. • Learn – lessons are everywhere, whether they’re presented as such or not. • Follow your passion through work. • Care about others. • Have inspiring relationships. • Feed your soul by capturing thoughts and photos that fill you with joy. • Make your home a haven. My book includes plenty of practical exercises to test your own self- awareness. When discussing the subject of ‘cleansing’, I encourage you to try Zapper Identification. If you answer yes to any of the following questions, please think carefully whether there is any merit in maintaining the relationship and about how to set up some protective parameters around it, if it must continue. Of course, there are difficult relationships we might have to tolerate in the work environment but if you become aware of energy- zappers, you will be half-way to finding a solution. • Is the relationship one-sided, in that you give and give and feel the other person takes and takes, rarely giving anything back? • When you think of this person, do you feel immediately drained and your shoulders droop? • Do you come away from conversations together feeling exhausted? • Do they seem to enjoy being locked in their ‘circle of suffering’, enjoying the act of complaining almost more than the problem itself? • Are they so self-absorbed that they never ask you about yourself or your life? • Do that talk at you rather than to you? • Do you get the impression they never listen to you? Does your advice fall on deaf ears? (Despite copious recommendations to help solve their problems, they never take heed and instead enjoy being stuck.) • Do they love gossiping about others and share private tales you know are breaches of confidence? • Do you rarely laugh together? This is critical as even the toughest relationship can survive as long as there are decent bouts of shared humour. Extreme productivity is an all-too-common energy crime committed by modern women every day and it’s something we, high-achieving women, are proud to have burnt into our psyches. “ “ 34 www.finance-monthly.com WOMEN IN FINANCE - SUCCEEDING WITHOUT BURNOUT