I wish to be better
In April this year, my book coauthor Mollie and I were scheduled to appear on Good Morning America to promote our new book, Big Feelings.
The weeks leading up to the launch had been a whirlwind of pitching, taking interviews, recording podcasts, and executing a complex, multi-channel marketing strategy. On top of all that, we were also both working full-time jobs. And on top of that, I was six months pregnant.
Our call time was 5:45 AM. The night before our slated interview, my nerves vibrated in anticipation. Each time I managed to drift off to sleep, I would startle awake 30 minutes later. When my alarm went off at 4:30 AM, I had already been up for over an hour.下一个就是你2
酱汁鱼At the studio, a small team applied my makeup and curled my hair, then ushered me to a at next to Mollie. I was starting to feel slightly nauated, but I tried to shrug off the acidity in my stomach. I figured it was nerves and would ttle once the interview began.
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“We’ll be live in two minutes,” a producer informed us as she rushed by. I took a deep breath, and the room tilted ominously. Dark spots clouded my vision. Mollie was saying something, but I couldn’t hear her over the blood pounding in my ears.
“I’m going to pass out,” I announced in a panic. Instinctually, I slid off my chair and laid on the ground. The producer rushed over to hand me a granola bar, which I inhaled, desperately hoping it would make me feel better. It didn’t help. I ended up crawling off the t, and Mollie filmed the gment by herlf. I spent the rest of the day in bed with a nur calling me to check in every few hours.
I have almost always been able to power through extremely busy weeks. When I got pregnant, I told mylf nothing had to change. I could take on as much as I always had; I would just be pregnant.
Things didn’t work out that way.
Here are five practices I put in place to better pace mylf, and that I wish I had embrace
d from the start. Depending on your organization and manager, you may not be able to implement all of them, but my hope is that the tips will inspire you to take a step back and t better boundaries for yourlf where you can.
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Be honest with yourlf
什么是职能部门It took me a (too) long time to accept that pregnancy came with new physical limitations. I’ve always prided mylf as being someone who could do it all. While I’d learned not to pull all-nighters, go months without taking any time off, or fill every weekday with back-to-back meetings, I was still able to balance both a full-time job and a jam-packed schedule of side projects. I was proud of that ability, and it felt crucial to my identity to continue to show up in the same way that I always had, even if I was pregnant.
The failed Good Morning America appearance was my first sign that things would have to change. Once I hit the third trimester, I struggled with vere insomnia that left me frustrated and forgetful. I eventually had to tell my team and my manager, then push my early-morning meetings back a few hours so I had the option of catching up on sleep.
感光Rearch shows it’s often easier for women to advocate for others than for themlves, so I also started to run opportunities and even my calendar by friends and trusted colleagues before making commitments. They would encourage me to slow down and not feel guilty about it.
Drop the absolutes
孕早期腰疼I ud to have a tendency to think in extremes. For example, if a sales director at my job flagged to me that an event or webinar would help them generate new business, I felt compelled to immediately e how I could make it happen, or thought I had to turn them down entirely. I could either show up at 100%, or it wasn’t worth showing up at all.
Now I look for compromis. In the sales director example, I look at the current content calendar to e when we might be able to add in a webinar, then break it up into veral tasks, and delegate as much as I can. This approach has also made me a better manager. When challenges aro, I ud to jump in with solutions. I now ask for members of my team to first come up with a few options on their own, which we then disc
uss together. By taking a step back, I better help my team learn and grow.
Conduct a weekly (or daily) calendar audit
One of the most frustrating aspects of pregnancy has been that how I feel changes from one day to the next. Some mornings, I wake up well-rested and full of energy. On other days, I’m groggy and a sciatica flare up (pain that radiates through my back and legs) makes it hard for me to sit at my desk for more than a few hours.
