Work/Life Balance is such a buzzword nowadays. Everyone wants to figure out how to be amazing, do amazing things, all at once, across every area of their lives. Recently, someone sent me a message after the short film, The Reunion, was released and said, “Tracey, you are #goals! You’re a wife, mother, professor, writer, and now filmmaker. You can do it all!”
And while it stroked my ego a little to hear someone seemingly compliment me in this way, the real, down and dirty truth is…that’s a lie. As much as I want to, as much as I may even manufacture a persona that appears to–I can’t and don’t do it all. At least not all at the same time. And I firmly believe that the oh so elusive “work/life balance” can never be achieved in any way that is fruitful until we all come to terms with that.
We can do all that we dream, all that God has placed on our hearts—just not all at the same time. Being able to move with the ebbs and flows is a critical component for success in any area of life. In fact, the name of this company, NewSeason Books and Media, is a testament, if not reminder, of that very thing. There are seasons in our lives. There will be mountain highs and valley lows. There will be times when you must sit EVERYTHING down to tend to your family and those you love. There are times when your family will be called to sacrifice for the calling that is on your life. It’s important that you learn to grace yourself and others in all of these moments. The journey you are on will swallow you whole if you don’t.
Finding balance is really just about knowing which season God has you in and not lingering too long in one when another awaits. Even when the one that awaits you isn’t part of your original plan. There’s a current that God is using to take you to your destiny. Don’t swim against it.
Grace and Peace,
TMLG
“If I am accepting a prestigious award, I am missing my baby’s first swim lesson. If I am at my daughter’s debut in her school musical, I am missing Sandra Oh’s last scene ever being filmed at Grey’s Anatomy. If I am succeeding at one, I am inevitably failing at the other. That is the tradeoff. That is the Faustian bargain one makes with the devil that comes with being a powerful working woman who is also a powerful mother. You never feel a hundred percent OK; you never get your sea legs; you are always a little nauseous. Something is always lost. Something is always missing. And yet. I want my daughters to see me and know me as a woman who works. I want that example set for them. I like how proud they are when they come to my offices and know that they come to Shondaland. There is a land and it is named after their mother. In their world, mothers run companies. In their world, mothers own Thursday nights. In their world, mothers work. And I am a better mother for it. The woman I am because I get to run Shondaland, because I get write all day, because I get to spend my days making things up, that woman is a better person—and a better mother. Because that woman is happy. That woman is fulfilled. That woman is whole. I wouldn’t want them to know the me who didn’t get to do this all day long. “ – Shonda Rhimes, Television Writer and Show Creator