OH! Magazine - Australian Version February 2014 (Australian Version) | Page 21
( Focus on Family )
NATASA
DENMAN
JUGGLING BABIES AND BUSINESS
Natasa Denman provides these tips
to help working mothers achieve success.
hen I had my first child a little bit over five years ago, my
world changed. I think any first time parents will tell you
the same thing. The first thing I noticed was my level of
responsibility went through the roof; I was now responsible for
keeping a helpless, dependent newborn alive and my focus had
to be on this tiny little baby boy. My husband owned a local
retail business and I was managing an optical outlet three days
a week, so having maternity leave gave me some comfort and
piece of mind.
I started back at work after my maternity leave; the business
was giving my husband the flexibility to be around us as much
as possible. Motherhood was fairly simple and I thought we
had things in a pretty good balance.
Then it all went sour.
Due to some bad life decisions my husband lost our
business. The one thing that I believed was my security was
taken from me and all of a sudden my part time management
job didn’t seem enough. This is when the real juggling act
began and where I needed to develop skills in time management
and baby wrangling I never knew existed.
I decided to enrol in a Diploma of Life Coaching. This was
a 24-month course of intense study and self-education which
I now had to find time for as well as my work supporting the
family, mother and household duties as well as being the
emotional support for my husband. My son was 18 months old
and I still wanted us (me and my husband) to be his number
one influence and not have him raised by childcare. He did two
days a week for the purpose of social interaction, so these were
the days where I devoted every minute to my studies and new
life coaching business.
It took me some time to get into a routine, yet this is what
enabled me to keep all of the balls up in the air. Babies,
toddlers and children all love routine and by me implementing
W
one for all of us, things started to flow. One of the first things
I did was to remove television from my life. It was a time
waster and once I realised that I could use my time so much
better, I discovered that, in fact, I had more time for the things
that mattered. Now don’t get me wrong, TV isn’t banned in the
house, in fact my kids (Judd is now five and daughter Mika is
2 ½) love watching their favourite cartoons, and my husband
loves his AFL, but the mindless watching for hours on end
have been abolished.
I also had to teach myself to set boundaries about my work
hours. To be totally present with your kids and to make it
quality time, you need to have your focus on them, not on your
phone or computer. That can wait until after they are asleep so
they understand that they are the most important things in
your life. Between the ages of four and seven is your child’s
‘imprint’ period and it is so critical for him to be imprinted
with great beliefs about being loved, special, etc. What will
his beliefs be around money and your own business?
The best advice I can give people who own their own
business who have kids is to get as much work done as you can
during their nap times and after they go to bed. If you reduce
your own TV time and replace that with working on your
business, you will be able to continue to be present for your
children, yet focused on growing your business so that you can
start to live the lifestyle of your dreams.
Most of all, learn to make decisions. Make lots of them and
make them quickly based on your ‘gut’ feelings. Do make sure
you are not in a heightened emotional state when you are
making them as the best decisions are made in a calm, neutral
state. By making decisions, you will eliminate one of the
biggest time wasters – procrastination! And as a result, you
will find yourself with more and more hours in your week if you
just learn to make fast, smart decisions.
Natasa Denman is the next generation business
mentor and product generator specialist.
The founder of Ultimate 48 Hour Author, a book
writing mentorship program, Natasa is the
author of 4 books herself – The 7 Ultimate
Secrets to Weight Loss, Ninja Couch Marketing, You Can Live
The Life Of Your Dreams and her soon to be released latest,
The Ultimate 48 Hour Author.
For more information visit www.ultimate48hourauthor.com.au
or email [email protected]
( OH! MAGAZINE ) ISSUE 7
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