Momcafe

Cindy Ball and Alix Cameron of The Smart Ass Gals have kindly posted this "guest blog" for the momMatters Blog as follow-up to their fabulous presentation last month. Thank you!

Something’s gotta’ give – that’s ok!

We often get asked if we’re living balanced lives. This is a tough question - sometimes yes and sometimes no. And really what is balance? The reality is that if you work, have your own business or are a new mom adjusting to life with a baby – life is busy. You can’t do everything. As Oprah says, “you can have everything – just not all at once”. We think it is important to decide what you want or need to do at a particular time. You can’t do it all so you really need to prioritize, make the call and live with your decision. Don’t belabour the fact that you didn’t get the e-mail out – you made it to the school concert. That was what you decided you wanted and needed at that time. Live with it. We try not to worry so much about balance, we strive more for a life that “flows” together easily. We try to arrange our work schedule around our children’s school drop off and activities and if we need to, we do “kid stuff” during work time and “work stuff” during family time. Yes, we try to live in the moment too but let’s face it sometimes you need to answer that phone call when you’re sitting on the soccer sidelines. That’s ok. Answer it. Your kid will be ok.

The other thing we have realized as business owners and mothers is that things won’t be perfect – something’s gotta’ give! We have learned to relax our perfectionist ways a tad. Obviously we don’t want to do a bad job of things but we have come to the realization that sometimes it is just better to get whatever it is out there and worry about dotting all the “i’s” and crossing all the “t’s” afterwards – or maybe not at all!

A good example of this would have to be our appearance on CNBC’s show The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch. We sent out a big press release in November to tell various media outlets about our upcoming Spring lingerie collections. Now in our rush to do this we listed our toll free number as 1-800-599-GALS instead of 1-866-599-GALS. The funny thing is that when the producers called they reached a seductive chat line. You would think this would have been the kiss of death and we would never hear from the producer – EVER! Not at all. It made their day, they had a good chuckle, we stood out from the crowd and they went on our website and found our correct toll-free number. It was ok. Mistakes happen. Life goes on.

So on your road to a balanced life or at least a life that goes with the flow realize that mistakes will happen. That’s ok we tell our kids it ok to make mistakes – start telling yourself it’s ok too!

Cheers,

Cindy Ball and Alix Cameron
The Smart Ass Gals

How do you find balance and release the desire to be perfect? Post a comment to this blog detailing your tips and experiences before July 30 and be entered into a draw to win two sassy Smart Ass thongs.