To Bake The Cookies Or Not… Priorities, Values + Balance With Tiffany Walker

core connections lifestyle mindfulness Jul 09, 2019

Is it worth it to have it all? Initially, it sounds nice, right? Being able to make the cookies for the bake sale while running your own business and catching up on Shark Tank in the midst of it all. Tiffany Walker was close to having it all. She had the comfy corporate job with her own parking space and an office with a door, but Tiffany noticed that she was missing one thing… happiness. So, she turned in her parking space to find her true values + priorities in life that she can look back on and be proud of. These values + priorities help guide her daily decisions, habits and boundaries that allow her to live her life with lower stress. Press play and learn how small changes to your life approach can add up to big impact.

MEET TIFFANY

Tiffany Walker is the co-founder of She Reaches, where she's a strategist to ambitious working moms helping them clear the noise from their lives so they can live with more peace and less stress. In addition, she's a partner at Pathways to Parenthood where she helps companies support their working parents through coaching and consulting. She is also the host of the She Reaches Podcast, a new + noteworthy podcast and on the Top-200 list of iTunes' Careers Podcast Chart.

Tiffany previously served as a Vice President of Sales and Product at a rapid-growth technology company and has over 12 years of experience working with top media and broadcast companies such as ABC, Viacom and Hulu on their digital strategy. She is a wife of 11 years and a mom of two daughters (7 + 5 years).

TIFFANY'S STORY

In Tiffany’s past life, she was the VP of sales at a rapid growth technology company where she worked + traveled for over 12 years. She had the parking space, the office with the door, the flexibility and the comfort that comes with a cushy corporate job. But something was missing as Tiffany realized that she wasn’t happy or satisfied while she was following someone else’s definition of what success is.

That’s when Tiffany started looking for a shift in her career to help mix things up, so she decided to try something new and co-founded She Reaches.

It started as a blog where conversations were shared and three years later after she left her corporate job, it has turned into a community where she helps moms trade overwhelm for joy by creating systems for their careers and personal lives so that they have time for what matters to them.

VALUES + PRIORITIES

Tiffany believes that it’s important to know your own values, priorities + intentions for your life. She wants you to think about what you want to be able to say at the end of your life and work backward from there. This will help you get down to the core of who you are, what’s important to you and what you want to do with your life.

As fluffy as Tiffany thinks it sounds, it helps you to figure out what you want your contribution to be. Being in touch with such beliefs will help you to make daily decisions that support those values + priorities. There are lots of different ways to spend your time, so having that outlook helps you to evaluate how you’re spending the time that you do have.

TO BAKE THE COOKIES OR NOT…

Do you really need to bake the cookies for the post-soccer game snack, or would it be just fine if you bought them from the store? When you look at your to-do list in a perspective of how that’s going to impact your life a day, week or year from now, you will begin to be able to prioritize with intention.

It's common to get stressed about that never-ending to-do list that you have created for yourself, but does it really matter if you spent hours baking the cookies or if you picked them up on the way to the game?

Next time you look at your to-do list, ask yourself, “Does this actually matter?” and see if there are ways that you can take the short cut or take it off your list completely. Holding yourself to too high of expectations could actually be holding you back from your core values.

MOMMY GUILT

We have talked about ditching the mommy guilt on The Core Connections Podcast before, but Tiffany explains why she believes mommy guilt will never go away despite the intentions behind it being understandable. Tiffany is a fan of evaluating your mommy guilt feelings in that moment. This can be done by asking yourself where the guilt + expectation coming from and then deciding if it’s true.

A lot of the time people are loaded with unrealistic expectations from society, their family and themselves that it ends up making them feel guilty when they can’t accomplish everything. Tiffany explains that when you start to consistently bring awareness to why you are feeling that way, the guilt will start to go away much faster.

Another important piece is to have a support system that you can reach out to when you start feeling that mommy guilt. Lay it on them and tell them how you’re feeling because that response back helps you realize that you’re not alone and that everyone has their moments.

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The material contained within is provided for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. You should seek prompt medical care for any specific health issues and consult your physician before beginning a new regiment or purchasing any product(s).