We think happiness just happens and it can, but you’ve got to work in some happiness too – Michelle Obama
Born in Chicago, Illinois in 1964, Michelle Obama is known for being the former first lady, the first Afro-American first lady, married to the 44th President of the USA. But she’s much more than that.
Graduating from both Princeton and Harvard Law Schools, Michelle is a successful lawyer, wife, mother and influencer. How has she learned to juggle such a portfolio of extraordinary achievements and keep them all in balance?
Let’s look at Michelle’s ‘3 Golden Secrets’ that made it work for her!
1. Prioritise
While first lady, Michelle’s schedule was obviously tight. So how could she keep the lives of her family and especially her young daughters “normal” even if her husband was the President of the USA?
Her answer lies in a simple trick: prioritising in advance. “Starting every year, before I booked anything, agreed to any meetings or conferences, we’d sit down with my assistant and we looked at our lives first. We put potlucks in there, we put date nights in there, I put my workouts, we put our vacations on the calendar first, we put sports things and summers. We planned that out first, and then what was left would be left for work.”
Don’t get sucked up by your working life, give yourself and your priorities the right position in your calendar!
2. Boundaries
As a young but still career minded mother, she was honest about her aspirations and communicated them clearly. On one occasion she attended a job interview with her 4 month old daughter openly sharing with her evaluator “I’ve got a husband who’s away, two little babies, they’re my priority. I thought if you want me to do the job you got to pay me to do the job and you got to give me flexibility. Flexibility means that I will work my tail off for you but you better pay me and value my family.”
It doesn’t matter how important is your role, your client or your business, nothing should be more important than your work-life balance.
3. Self-Love
Understanding the importance of self-love and me time is a true blessing. We – not our spouse, our boss, nor our friends – can ever be responsible for our own happiness.
Michelle says: “The number one daily habit is to give myself permission to be happy. It’s physical and mental; it’s my diet, physical activity, and emotional state. That’s all tied together. We feel like it’s somehow selfish.”
Rather than feeling guilty, Michelle totally gets the importance of self-indulgence because she understands the importance of creating healthy, balanced relationships, with self and others.. She affirmed “When I’m happier and healthier, my family is happier and healthier, and it affects how I interact with my friends and the people I work with”. I couldn’t agree more!!
Michelle’s extra little tip?
4. Organised efficiency!
Michelle says that being “ruthlessly efficient” and “fiercely organized” [CLICK LINK HERE] are key to getting anything done. “I have to plan my happiness. That’s the thing. We think happiness just happens and it can, but you’ve got to work in some happiness too.”
Take Michelle’s hot tips and work them into your life to find greater balance, greater peace, greater happiness.
Have a great week,
Andrew
