Inspirations | Blog by Heather Vickery | Success + Leadership Coaching

Achieving Work-Life Balance: Delegation

My own coach once told me that the best use of his time was to be coaching or making efforts to get into conversation with people he could potentially coach. For him, that meant delegating and outsourcing other aspects of his business which pulled him away from being in conversation with and serving others. He also admitted he simply was not very good at some of the more traditional business roles like marketing and administrative work. Truth be told, I am in the same boat. While I am competent at marketing, social media, bookkeeping and administrative work, it is not my strong suit and, as such, takes me much longer than it would someone with more skills in those areas. The reality is

Achieving Work-Life Balance: Commitments

While on a call with a client a few weeks ago, he mentioned that he was working all of the time, but was still unfocused and not getting enough done.. I suggested he commit to keeping track of everything he did from the time he woke up until the time he went to bed. We needed to identify how and where he was spending his time. After tracking his hours for a week, we looked at what could be shifted or released so that he was more efficient. By the time we finished, he said it was like more hours magically appeared. The magic was in the commitment and the intention that went behind it. Without commitments, it is impossible to achieve work-life balance

Achieving Work-Life Balance: Productivity

I remember the day it all came crashing down. Clients were lined up out the door (this is a good problem, of course, but I was at max capacity and something had to give) and all I could do was scroll through Facebook. I was working hard but I was not working smart. I was in desperate need of some systems that would help me mobilize my productivity. Time spent in an unproductive manner just causes frustration and a backlog of work and responsibilities. I cannot tell you the countless days I spent feeling so far in the weeds that I had no idea when I would ever get out. There is always so much work to do! During those times it was

Achieving Work-Life Balance: Define and Create Boundaries

When I first started my business, I thought I needed to be available 24/7 in order to be successful. That led clients to think I was always available and caused frustration and exhaustion on my part. I knew I couldn’t continue like that so I took a serious look at what I wanted and identified what needed to shift so I could meet my client’s needs and regain my life! Last week we talked about identifying your needs. Now let’s talk about my favorite step: defining and creating boundaries. Boundaries are limits that define acceptable behavior. They are your limits. You decide what’s acceptable for you, your life and your business. Boundaries give you permission to say “yes” and “no” at the appropriate

Achieving Work-Life Balance: Identifying Your Needs

We learned in the first post in this series that, in order to achieve a successful work-life balance, you need to create something unique to you and your needs rather than aspiring to an “ideal balance” that works for someone else. In part one, we will focus on easy steps to identify what your personal and professional needs really are. Once identified, you can begin to build the right balance. Prior to this step, you are playing someone else’s games and by someone else’s rules. When I first started my business, I watched how other people ran their businesses. I read lots of books about the “right” way to do things and I tried to mirror that behavior. The thing is, most of

Achieving Work-Life Balance: Series Introduction

Today, like every other day, I will shut my computer down at 3pm and go pick my kids up from school. I recognize this is a luxury that not everyone has but it is part of the work-life balance I have created for myself. The deal is, I am in charge of what I want my work-life balance to look like and this is non-negotiable to me. Almost every client I work with comes to me with a problem balancing their time properly to ensure that they get the most out of their work time, exceed their client’s expectations and still have quality personal and family time. It seems that most of us hold ourselves to a standard dictated by other people about what our

Be Here Now

Today is the first day all of my kids are back in school full time. That also means it’s my first full day back in the office. We had a wonderful summer together but let me be honest, trying to run a business while also playing summer camp director for four kids is intense. I spent much of the summer thinking, “Thank goodness I have the ability to be with them” and also, at the very same time, “Holy shit, when am I ever going to get everything done!?” And now, upon reflection, it all went by so fast. Give it back, please! Let me be laughing at the pool with my babies. But here we are. Another school year started, the weather

You Don't Need to do Anything!

I recently had a conversation with my 7-year-old daughter, Tessa. I was running around getting the kids ready for school and said “We NEED to leave the house by 8:30!” to which she replied, “We don’t ever need to do anything. You want to do it because you don’t want us to be late.” Such a simple concept, right? She and I spent some time talking through things that I felt might be needs and she was able to find the want in each and every one: Me: I need to feed you and your sisters. Tessa: You want to feed us because you love us and don’t want us to die. Me: I need to work. Tessa: You want to work

Living Inside of a Snow Globe

I have always loved snow globes. I think they’re magical and I collected them when I was younger. I would stare inside, at the pristine little world covered in “snowflakes” and imagine what it would be like to live inside one. As I got older, instead of feeling like I was on the outside of the snow globe looking in, I began to feel like I was on the inside, looking out. I had imagined what it felt like to live inside that snowglobe and then I realized my life really did resemble that exact thing. Unfortunately, I felt stuck in the pristine little world, surrounded by glass and unable to get to reality. I imagined that everyone on the outside was looking in

Transforming Reality

I have long said “our perception creates our reality, therefore, we have the power to change the future”. So many elements in our daily life affect our perception. Last Sunday morning, I decided to shake up my routine. My kids were with their other parent so I had the luxury of deciding how I would spend my morning. If walking through your neighborhood early on a Sunday morning is new to you, it’s like a whole new world. I decided to get up and to get out, and I walked around the neighborhood listening to a podcast. I listened to Invisibilia on NPR, episode Reality: Part 2. I had no idea how related it would be to that morning’s experiences. I had an

Achieving Work-Life Balance: Delegation

Achieving Work-Life Balance: Commitments

Achieving Work-Life Balance: Productivity

Achieving Work-Life Balance: Define and Create Boundaries

Achieving Work-Life Balance: Identifying Your Needs

Achieving Work-Life Balance: Series Introduction

Be Here Now

You Don't Need to do Anything!

Living Inside of a Snow Globe

Transforming Reality

Achieving Work-Life Balance: Delegation

Achieving Work-Life Balance: Commitments

Achieving Work-Life Balance: Productivity

Achieving Work-Life Balance: Define and Create Boundaries

Achieving Work-Life Balance: Identifying Your Needs

Achieving Work-Life Balance: Series Introduction

Be Here Now

You Don't Need to do Anything!

Living Inside of a Snow Globe

Transforming Reality

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