What are your 3 Non-Negotiables? by Lori Radun, CEC

What do these three scenarios have in common?

• Your 1^st grader comes to you and says “Mom, can I get a cell phone please?”
• Your three year old cries for cotton candy for breakfast.
• Your 14 year old assures you she can drive and begs you to drive the car by herself.

Hopefully, in all cases, you would say “Absolutely not!”  There would be no negotiating whatsoever with these situations. The limits are set for very good reasons. A six year old is too young to have a cell phone. Cotton candy is not healthy for breakfast. It is against the law to allow a 14 year old to drive a car. There are other situations, with your children, where some amount of negotiating may be allowed. You may bend the rules a little because there is no real harm in doing so. But, as the parent, you decide the limits because you know what is best for your children.

Protecting your time and energy is handled in much the same way. You decide what limits need to be put in place to protect two very valuable resources. What happens when we don’t set boundaries with our time and energy? We over commit, overwork, oversleep, run late, and ultimately, get overstressed. Putting three non-negotiable limits on your time and energy help you to honor some amount of structure in your life. These three limits are designed to help you make healthy choices for your life so you can optimize your time and energy. The three non-negotiables are never or rarely negotiated.

Some examples include:

• I will go to bed by 10:30 every night during the week.
  
• There is a limit of only 1 extracurricular activity per child per semester.
  
• I will not exceed 45 hours per week working.

Think about your time and energy. Is your time being spent on the activities that are most important to you? What robs you of your precious energy? What limits would help you get the most out of your time and energy?

Weekly Action Opportunity:

Decide your 3 non-negotiables. Write them down and post them on the refrigerator. Honor and protect them just like you would your children.

A special thank to my friend and colleague Lori Radun, who is our guest blogger while I am away from the office. Thank you Lori for the inspiration to get clear on our “non-negotiables’!

Lori is a certified life coach and founder of Momnificent! Lori’s mission is to empower moms to minimize stress, create high quality relationships, balance their many roles and take action on what’s most important to them so they can have magnificent lives, families and businesses.  To join her community of magnificent moms, visit www.momnificent.com.