Motherhood is a demanding but rewarding experience. With seemingly endless tasks to accomplish on a daily basis, it may seem like mothers don’t have enough time and opportunities to pursue their ambitions. But that doesn’t mean you have to completely shut off your dreams.

If you’re a mother and you have goals and ambitions that you’d like to pursue despite changing diapers, preparing meals, and homeschooling, all you need is to balance your daily tasks and responsibilities. Here are some practical tips you can follow to work on your personal goals while doing your job as a full-time mom.

1. Set a few minutes every day to work on your personal goals. Whether it’s just 15 minutes or 30 minutes a day, use it strictly to pursue your passion. Learn a new skill, read a book, or blog about your experiences. A few minutes of work a day performed consistently can bring significant results in the long run.

2. Learn to delegate and ask for help. You don’t have to do everything alone. When it comes to taking care of your kids, you can hire a nanny or a babysitter. For house chores, you can get a house cleaner or cleaning company. For outdoor errands, ask your husband to do them. With extra time on your hands, you can work on your goals and ambition.

3. Follow passionate and successful moms on social media. These people can significantly motivate and influence you on pursuing your passion and working towards your goals. Get useful and helpful tips from them that you can apply in your life, too.

4. Make sure your family is on board. Tell your husband and children about what you wish to achieve. Make them understand that this is a part of you you need to focus on because it will not only provide fulfillment on your part, but will also make you a better wife, mother, and provider to the family.

5. Keep your body and mind healthy. If you are in tip-top shape, you can easily juggle motherhood, home management, work, and passion projects. So make sure to have a complete rest every day, eat a balanced diet, exercise regularly, and develop strong mental and emotional health.

As a mother, parenting and raising kids should not hinder you from pursuing your ambitions. By effectively balancing your personal goals and family responsibilities, you can succeed in both aspects of your life.

Once or a few times in your life, you may feel like you’re lost, going in circles, or in a dead-end. Feeling stuck is a tough situation to be in. You don’t know what to do and how to keep going. 

If you are in a similar situation, here are some things you can do to move on and move forward with life.

1. Identify what you really want to do. Maybe the reason you’re stuck is that you are trying to do something that doesn’t spark joy in your life or fulfill your purpose. Find out what you love and do that.

2. Try something different. Doing the same thing over and over again can burn you out. If you are bored and burnt out and feel like you’re not getting anywhere, it’s time to do something new, something exciting, something you’ve never done before.
3. Move to a new place. Feeling stuck can also mean being stuck in a place you’ve been in for a long time. Travel, visit a foreign land, relocate to another city. Having a new surroundings can help you get and get moving.
4. Take action. Sometimes, what frustrates us to keep going is having a lot of plans but not being able to make them happen. So, instead of sitting around and waiting for good things to come, take action and turn your dreams into reality.
5. Change your routines. If you feel like every day is just the same old boring things that happen, it’s up to you to change it. Instead of ordering in, why not cook your own food. Instead of running on the treadmill, try jogging outdoors and appreciate the beauty of nature.
6. Have some fun. If your life is lacking fun and excitement, it means you’re not doing enough things that excite you. Travel, read your favorite book, shop, or party with friends. Don’t hold back to do the things you love to do.
7. Volunteer and do charity works. When you help other people, you get a sense of pride and fulfillment. You can also probably find your calling when you try to do volunteer work. 
8. Re-evaluate your goals. Do your current goals seem to discourage you? Are they not as fulfilling as before? Maybe it’s time to revisit your goals and upgrade them according to what makes sense to you.
9. Surround yourself with ambitious and supportive people. Get inspiration from the right people. When the people in your circle are growing and succeeding, you will be motivated to follow their footsteps.
10. Take a break. When you feel stuck and don’t know what to do, it’s okay to pause. Taking a break doesn’t mean giving up. Sometimes, only when you clear your mind and forget about the worries will you find clarity on what to do next. 

None of us knows what’s in store for us in the future. So, the next time you get stuck, just remember these tips and help yourself find the right direction.

Heart racing, palms sweaty, breathing becomes harder—sounds familiar? Everyone has experienced anxiety at least once in their lives because it is a normal human response to stress. But some days are better than others and there are times when your anxiety seems so out of control that it almost takes over your life. 

Don’t panic! Read through our twelve tips for easing anxiety: 

1. Take long deep breaths. Inhale fully and let out a huge exhale. Filling your lungs with air can give you a sense of relief and help you calm down instantly.

2. Focus on your breathing. Anxiety makes your thoughts spiral out of control, so it helps to keep your mind on one thing. Focus on your breathing pattern—as if you are meditating—and become more aware of the air that goes in and out of your lungs. 

3. Take a break. Burn-outs can easily lead to anxiety. Remind yourself that it is okay to take time for yourself to do the things you love like watching movies, reading a good book, or not doing anything at all. 

4. Stay active. Exercising will not only make you feel good physically, but it will also distract you from anxiety-inducing thoughts. It will also drain your energy, helping you fall asleep faster in the nighttime. 

5. Avoid coffee and other caffeinated drinks. Caffeine can give you ‘jittery effects’ that stimulate the human’s ‘fight or flight response which can worsen anxiety.

6. Slowly count to ten. When having an anxiety attack, get your mind off your thoughts by counting to ten—or even up to twenty if you need to. 

7. Reach out to your friends and family. Unloading the burdens of anxiety to people you trust can help you feel much lighter and better. 

8. Reconnect with nature. Go for a walk or, if you can, travel somewhere close to nature to get away from the anxiety-causing busy city life. 

9. Learn what triggers your anxiety. Be observant of what often causes your anxiety and find ways to deal with them better next time. Don’t ignore your triggers. 

10. Be more accepting of the things you can’t control. Situations that make you feel helpless can easily trigger anxiety. Identify the things you have no control over and learn to let them go. 

11. Focus on what you can do instead. Instead of wasting your energy thinking of things you can’t control, focus on what you can do in the meantime instead. 

12. Pay more attention to the good things in life. Anxiety makes it hard to see the good side of life but there really are lots of things to be grateful for. Focus on them instead. 

Whenever anxiety starts to creep in on you again, just look back on these tips and remember that you are not alone. And you will get through it, just like you did each time before. 

It is tough being a parent. You have to deal with sleepless nights, consistent bouts of anxiety whenever you are away from your children, and the fear of being judged harshly as a parent. It takes a lot of patience and understanding to effectively raise well-behaved children. 

While there is no manual to perfect parenting, there are tips and techniques you can practice to be a great parent to your children.

1. Acknowledge and validate your children’s feelings. Whether they are sad, angry, or hurt, let them know that it’s okay to feel those feelings. Don’t shut them out. Instead, encourage them to express themselves more.

2. Give them a chance to speak out and really listen to them. To truly understand your children’s behaviors, thoughts, and feelings, you need to let them speak their minds. And as a parent, take time to listen to what they have to say.

3. Encourage them to pursue their interests and develop their skills. If you want your children to grow up with ambitions and goals, be encouraging. Believe in their capabilities and provide them with many opportunities to grow and improve.

4. Allow them to make mistakes and learn from their failures. Experience is still the best teacher. While parents can always teach concepts and ideas to kids, experiencing a particular situation will make them understand what it really is. Therefore, let your kids explore the world around them and allow them to get hurt, be bored, and make mistakes, because only then can they really learn the lesson. 

5. Reward positive behaviors and reprimand negative ones. The reward system is an excellent way to show your children that positive behaviors are rewarded. This way, as they grow older, they will opt to become better, more disciplined, and more helpful individuals because they know that good actions bring good results.

Remember that you are not alone in this parenting journey. Many parents, especially mothers, agree that parenting is difficult and raising kids can really get the best of you. More than a parent, just keep being a friend to your children and ensure them that you are always by their side to guide, support, and care for them.

Motherhood can be the most rewarding phase in a woman’s life. There is nothing that can be compared to the joy and pride brought by having a child or children to call your own. However, while mothering can be gratifying, it is also undoubtedly a difficult role to fulfill. From attending to her children to doing the laundry and the dishes to buying the things needed at home, the work of a mother is truly never done.

No mother has gone through a smooth and flawless parenting journey. In fact, there may be times when you feel like the struggles are never-ending and you just want to walk away from it all. The difficult times will always be there, but it’s up to you how you will stay strong and resilient for the little human beings who look up to you.

Affirmations for Mothers During Difficult Times

I’m the best parent for my child, which is why they are mine.

I can choose to leave situations that make me sad, angry, or uncomfortable.

I am tough. I am strong. I have what it takes to overcome these obstacles.

I am grateful that I can provide for my children to keep them healthy and feeling loved.

Loving myself is the greatest gift I can give to my child.

What matters is that I’m doing the best I can to be the best parent for my children.

My feelings are valid. I am allowed to feel tired, sad, or stressed. I am allowed to cry. Because after I let it all out, I will be okay once again.

Motherhood is Hard, But You Got This Momma!

When parenting gets hard and times are tough, remember that you are tougher because you are a mother. When everything gets overwhelming, take a break. Look at yourself in the mirror and say the above affirmations to yourself over and over until you get back your strength, confidence, and motivation to keep going.

You got this, momma!

Being a mother is already challenging enough. With homeschooling, food preparation, managing the household, and running errands, you feel like 24 hours in a day isn’t enough to accomplish all your tasks. If you’re a working mom and you’re working from home, it’s even more dreadful!

Here are eight time management tips to help you organize your schedule, complete your to-do list, and still stay sane even after a long day.

1. Plan your schedule ahead. Whether the night before or early in the morning, identify all the things you need to do and tasks you need to accomplish for the day. This way, you won’t miss anything and you won’t spend so much time remembering what needs to be done.

2. Follow a to-do list according to priorities. To ensure that you’ll cover all your tasks for the day, create a to-do list and follow it according to importance and urgency.

3. Set attainable daily goals. Admit it, you can’t do everything at once. So instead of trying to complete big goals and projects in one day, set goals that are realistic and doable. 

4. Allot time for deep work. Whether it’s 30 minutes, 1 hour, or 2 hours, use this time to focus on just working — no distractions, no giving into children’s requests, and no other disturbances.

5. Eliminate distractions. In relation to the above, you should also learn to reduce any type of interruption throughout the day. Some of the biggest time wasters are social media, mobile apps and games, and movies and TV series.

6. Delegate and share responsibilities with others. If you can, let others take some of the responsibilities off your shoulder. For instance, hire a housekeeper to clean the house, ask your husband to do the groceries, or teach your children to wash the dishes.

7. Learn to say no. Because you are the know-it-all and do-it-all person in the house, chances are, other people will ask you to do more stuff for them. Learn to say no or tell them to wait at a later time when you are free to help them.

8. Stay strong and healthy. Most importantly, to be able to fulfill all your work, duties, and responsibilities, make sure that you are getting enough sleep, eating right, and taking time to exercise.

As a mom, you are expected to do everything all the time. With proper time management skills, you can prove to your husband and kids that you are indeed the superwoman they look up to.