The season of chaos…

In my house we are in the season of chaos…it happens each year between winter and spring and we are fully in it right now. It is the time of year when all of us want to be out and about, so we make too many plans, sign up for too many things, and then quietly complain about how much we have going on.

I wish I could say that I we will learn from it and “do better” next year, but with middle/high school children, I think the odds are against us. Besides, if we were going to change, we would have already done it. What’s interesting, though, is how each of us is drained or energized differently and how we never all seem to feel out of balance at the same time or in the same way. Here’s are two examples of what I mean:
I can drive kids to and from activities for hours and it doesn’t bother me. I just load a bunch of “work” in my car and do what I can in between activities. My husband, on the other hand, is drained if he has to support more than one activity a day for the children.
My son can do homework until midnight and it doesn’t phase him, but my daughter wants to go to bed at her “normal” time and get up early in the morning to finish. For either of them, if they are forced to follow the opposite plan, there is a very low probability of overall success (and a very high probability of big emotions).
I thrive in back to back meetings and squeeze in the to-do list here and there and then walk away from the day feeling productive, while my husband would prefer a predicable schedule with appropriate time blocks to accomplish his tasks to know what he is going to accomplish and then execute it. When I have a predictable day, I often inadvertently sabotage it by adding in last minute items (apparently to create the fuel that powers me)
I think that’s how it just goes - at home and at work we all have different approaches to balance because we all feel balanced differently. That’s why being willing to adopt a flexible mindset is so important for leaders. If the people in your household (the ones who choose and the ones you grew) can be so different, then we should we expect our team members to be just like us?