Maternity leave gives you a wonderful time to bond with your baby; it’s also a great opportunity to take time out to reflect and plan on what you would like the rest of your life to be like. It is a time of transition and therefore a good time to take stock and reconsider where you are heading. The future ahead can be both exciting and sometimes overwhelming. You are no longer responsible only for you but a little person too!  Life is all about choice, maybe one of your biggest choices was to become a Mum. That choice in turn leads to many others you have the opportunity to make. For many women the transition to motherhood results in many questions that were perhaps not considered deeply before.

Below are some steps you can take to smooth the path going forward and ease the transition to a new chapter of your life. You may already have a very clear vision in place, in which case the steps below can be used as a sanity check!

Define your purpose

Take time to consider what your ultimate goals are. Having a baby creates huge change in one’s life. Change is often a catalyst of even greater change. It is very rare that people achieve their dreams without a concrete plan to get there. Knowing exactly what you want to achieve will help you to plan the steps you need to take to get there. What is your thinking around your purpose? What is your reason for being? What do you want to be and do with your life? Imagine you were celebrating your 80^th birthday and there were 4 very special speeches being delivered that day. All in honour of you! Perhaps the speeches are delivered by your partner, your children, a work colleague and someone from your community. What would you like to hear them saying? What impact would you like to have made on those delivering the speeches? What is the ultimate achievement you would like to have accomplished in each area? Now is a good time to think about the quality-of-life results you desire.

Identify your roles

During your lifetime you will have many different roles. Our different roles are made up of our responsibilities and relationships in the various different areas of our lives. These roles could include Wife/Partner, Mother, Daughter, Sister, Boss, colleague etc. Once you have identified the different roles, ask yourself the flowing questions:

What results are you currently achieving in each role?

How do these results contribute to the purpose you have identified?

What is the most important aspect of each role?

Are there certain roles in your life that are irrelevant and need to be changed or eliminated?

Identifying your roles will give you a clear outline to work with for the following step

Moving towards your perfect balance

Identifying your roles and the current reality of each role gives you a clear framework to use to create balance in your life. Balance not necessarily being spending certain amounts of time within your different roles but a balance that these roles work together towards achieving your purpose. The roles are very much related and interdependent but by identifying the different roles you are able to look at each role from a different perspective. When you look at you different roles, what comes to mind in terms of the choices you need to make in order to fulfil your desires in each role? What are the necessary achievements along the way? What are the obstacles you may encounter? Be realistic with yourself – now is the time to remember that you don’t have as much ‘disposable’ time as you had before so set yourself up for success by committing only to realistic actions you can take. Take baby steps towards your goals and enjoy the walk along the way.

Asking for help

A little person entering your life can draw on quite a number of additional resources you did not previously need or even think of needing! What support do you need to continue moving towards your goals? Make a list of the resources you already have in place as well as any support you can draw on to make life a little easier. Who do you know who could help? Make sure you are using all your resources effectively. Find out what kind of support is offered by your workplace and/or community and work out how you can best use the support to your advantage and in line with your purpose.

Take care of you

In order to take care of your baby, you need to take care of yourself. Think of the safety instructions issued before take-off on an aeroplane. Should there be a drop in cabin pressure, the oxygen masks will be released and we are clearly instructed to place our oxygen masks on first and then assist children and fellow passengers. With our children it is often difficult to give oneself priority – it is important though so make sure you look after yourself - body, mind and soul. What did you do pre-baby? How can you find time for that now?

The choice is yours! Now is a wonderful time to reconsider your options, define your roles and start taking baby steps to your ultimate desires.