You've been thinking About Balance All Wrong. Here's what to do instead

If you've spent any amount of time as an entrepreneur—or a mom—you've probably wrestled with the idea of balance.

It's one of those topics that never seems to go away. There are books about it, podcasts about it, endless social media posts about how to achieve it, and plenty of opinions on what it should look like. For a long time, I believed balance simply wasn't possible. In fact, I used to say it was a myth.

Today, I see it differently.

Not because life suddenly became easier, but because I stopped trying to live according to someone else's definition of balance and started creating my own.

 

 

The traditional idea of work-life balance tells us we're supposed to divide ourselves equally between work and home. We work a little, parent a little, exercise a little, spend time with our partners, and somehow everything is meant to fit together perfectly.

The problem is, I don't actually want my life to look like that.

I don't want work and life to carry equal weight. I want my life to come first. I love my business—I genuinely do—but it isn't the only thing that makes me who I am. When I realized I was measuring myself against a definition that didn't even align with my own values, it became much easier to let it go.

 

 

When people ask me how I manage everything, they're often surprised by my answer.

To me, balance isn't about counting hours or trying to make every part of my life perfectly equal. It's about being where my feet are.

When I'm working, I want to be fully working.

When I'm with my kids, I want to actually be with them.

When I'm exercising, I want to be present enough to enjoy it instead of mentally running through my to-do list.

That shift—from measuring time to measuring presence—has changed everything for me.

 

 

One thing motherhood has taught me is that balance is never static.

When my children were babies, balance looked nothing like it does today. I can still picture myself sitting on the couch with my daughter in her ExerSaucer while I worked on my laptop beside her. At the time, it felt like multitasking was the only option.

Looking back, I realize I wasn't truly present in either role. I wasn't fully working, and I wasn't fully parenting. I was simply trying to survive that season.

Eventually, I realized that if I wanted to build a business I loved while also being the kind of mom I wanted to be, I needed support. For me, that meant hiring a nanny for a few hours each week. For someone else, it might look like daycare, grandparents, a trusted neighbour, or asking a partner to take on more at home.

The support itself isn't the point. The willingness to ask for it is.

 

 

I think many entrepreneurs see delegation as something they'll do "someday"—when the business is bigger, when there's more money, or when life feels less busy.

But I've come to believe that support isn't a reward for building a successful business. It's often what makes building that business possible in the first place.

Sometimes that support happens inside your business by delegating tasks that don't require your expertise. Other times it happens at home by outsourcing the laundry, hiring a cleaner, or finding someone to help with childcare.

Every task you remove from your plate creates more room for the work—and the people—that matter most.

 

 

One of the biggest mistakes we make is assuming someone else's version of balance should become our own.

Maybe your dream is to work forty hours a week because you absolutely love what you do.

Maybe your goal is to build a business that only requires fifteen hours a week so you can spend more time with your family.

Neither is right or wrong.

The important question is whether your definition reflects the life you're actually trying to create. If you're constantly measuring yourself against someone else's expectations, you'll always feel like you're falling short.

 

 

If there's one thing I hope you take away from this episode, it's that balance isn't about perfection.

It's about intention.

It's about creating a life where, more often than not, you can give your full attention to the moment you're in. Some days work will require more of you. Other days your family will. That's not imbalance—that's life.

The goal isn't to make every day look the same.

The goal is to build a business and a life that allow you to be fully present for the moments that matter most.

If this conversation resonates with you, I hope you'll listen to the full episode. We dive deeper into redefining balance, building the right support systems, and creating a business that supports the life you actually want to live.