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 21