FT health and wellbeing

Liz Barton from Vetsnet says our most precious commodities are relationships and time.  How do we balance the needs of family and work? Find out what she suggests…

“We invest a huge amount of time and emotion in our jobs as vets and nurses and often become heavily involved with our practices, colleagues, clients and patients.  Then add family into the mix, all of a sudden, we have a huge new investment of both of these limited resources and inevitably feel torn. “

Check out these great action points put together by Liz, to help restore some calm and order….

• Live in the present – enjoy work when you’re at work, and family life when you’re at home. Make a commitment to engaging fully with the present.
• Give yourself a break – buy more ready meals if you have to. Employ a cleaner, or delay all but the essential tasks.  Do what you can, but don’t beat yourself up for not doing everything
• Diarise ‘ME’ time – you need to look after yourself if you are to sustain looking after others.
• Flex your career – find out about flexible working options; do what works for you at the time, remember it’s for a season and don’t give up on your career goals.
• Remember ‘it’s a phase’! Everything with parenting revolves around phases of behaviour and need and these change every few months and years.  Having a growth mindset to accept and adapt to each phase will enable you to make the most of the stages of family and working life.