Is it for now or forever?

A new normal requires a different approach than a temporary time crunch

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is that when you are facing a challenging time,
figure out whether the difficulty is for now or forever.

(00:26):
You can deal with just about anything for a short
period of time, but if the hardship is more long term,
you may need to come up with a different sort
of plan. So we have all had times when we
felt especially stretched or challenged. Maybe your workload at your
job went from manageable to massive, Or maybe your spouse

(00:49):
got a new job and it's requiring more travel than
either of you anticipated. Maybe your mom had a fall
and now she has a hip replacement and rehab in
her future. It's a lot for her and for you.
Maybe the new semester has felt like a whirlwind. You
feel like all your waking hours are spent working, driving,

(01:10):
picking up drop balls, and recalibrating your schedule for the
next day. So when you are feeling this way, ask
yourself this question, is this difficulty temporary or is it
the new normal? When you know whether an issue is
for now or forever, you can decide how to navigate it.

(01:36):
When you know a difficulty or time crunch is for
the moment, you can view it as a sprint to
be gotten through. You can do virtually anything for a
week or even a semester or so if you know
it's limited. For instance, if your childcare provider is taking
two weeks off to care for a relative after surgery,

(01:57):
you can probably piece together a patchwork of others, sitters, relatives,
and PTO days to make it work. It will be stressful,
for sure, but for two weeks you can survive. Same
If you have a busy season at work, you might
be down a team member, but once someone new is

(02:19):
hired and trained, your workload will be manageable again. Or
maybe your team will stay the same size, but the
volume of work will decrease once you finish a big project.
Or it may be that every year at this time
you work your tailoff. You can work at maximum capacity
one month every year and be okay, even if you

(02:40):
couldn't produce at that rate sustainably. Part of getting through
a temporary difficult season may be putting off everything that
is not urgent. For instance, if you have a big
work deadline next week, cleaning the house, finding a roofer,
and processing, non org work, email can all wait. You

(03:03):
can deal with all of those things once the work
deadline is behind you. When a difficulty is temporary, you
can also ask friends and family for help. You can
feel free to cancel or reschedule plans until after the
difficult season. When a difficulty or time crunch is ongoing, though,

(03:25):
you will need to approach it differently. You can't just
shoulder through difficulty forever. Eventually all those things you put
off will need to happen, and eventually you can't cobble
together solutions. If your job is going to be incredibly
demanding for the foreseeable future, you need to find ways

(03:47):
to be as efficient with your work as possible. Maybe
you need to argue for more team members or longer deadlines.
You may also have to find ways to reduce the
time you spend on life maintenance. Or maybe you'll decide
you need to find a new job. But one way
or another, you will have to get back to sustainability.

(04:11):
If your nanny decides not to return after that short
caregiving leave, you will need to find a new nanny
or to find another full time child care solution. You
can't have a patchwork of care forever. If your mom
isn't able to cook or take care of her home
independently anymore, and you realize that you can't do that
single handedly while working and taking care of your kids,

(04:34):
you're going to have to come up with another plan.
Do you need to get into a rotation with your siblings,
could you hire a home health aid, or does your
mom need to move into a retirement community. A forever
difficulty requires an intentional decision and a long term solution.
When a difficulty is ongoing, you'll also want to find

(04:56):
ways to engage with your friends and family and away
that is more reciprocal. Your neighbor will drive carpool for
a few weeks and a pinch, but probably won't be
willing to single handedly drive the carpool for the rest
of time. If you are never going to be able
to drive, then you will need to hire someone to

(05:17):
take this over. Likewise, when your schedule is crunched for
as far as you can see, you don't want to
cancel your weekly brunch with your best friend forever and
leave it at that. You'll need to find some other
way to stay connected. So if you find yourself facing
a difficult season, take a breath and figure out whether

(05:41):
the difficulty or time crunch is temporary or permanent. Then
with that knowledge you can navigate it more wisely in
a way that makes sense for you and the people
around you. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening,

(06:02):
and here's to making the most of our time. Thanks
for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,
or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura
vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.

(06:30):
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