How To Find Your Joy As a Mom Again

The Intentional Mom Planning System is where you need to start with our incredible collection of product options. It will help you establish the basics for your life & home so you’ll finally have a plan, save yourself time, and go to bed feeling like you accomplished something every day (because you did). Save up to 60% HERE!

Talk to any mom, and I’ll bet that she will admit to being totally overwhelmed at times…at least if she’s being honest. Many of us, myself included, would also say that we may find ourselves there many more times than we would like. But, are we really being realistic in our expectations as a mom?

When we are being pulled in what seems to be a thousand different directions, it can be so easy to feel as though we’ve lost our way. Our focus is so often pointed elsewhere, which means that we can feel as though we are failing as moms simply because our lives can’t be focused on our roles as much as they usually are.

Then, there is often vast amounts of stress that comes our way with expectations, including impossible expectations placed on us at times, that only add to our frustration and exhaustion on any given day.

If this is how you are feeling right now, then you are in the right place because I’ve got some tips on how you can regain your focus, young composure, and your happiness.

Here is how you can find your joy as a mom again.

(this post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a small commission at no cost to you)

Stop trying to be perfect

So often, especially with the demands we place on ourselves, we try to get everything done perfectly. Sometimes it is others who are also placing these expectations on us, but if you are anything like me, we are the biggest culprit in putting undue pressure on ourselves to get it all done perfectly.

In reality, we can’t please everyone, we can’t meet the demands of everyone, and disappointment will most certainly occur whether it is our own disappointment or the disappointment of others.

We aren’t going to accomplish anything perfectly, so we need to just stop trying. This very idea can be so very freeing.

Realize that you can’t do it all

We can’t do it all, but we can sure die trying, right? I hope not, and this thinking is what I’m wanting to address. We all have limitations, and we should. We all have boundaries, and we should have those as well.

These things are easy to say in theory, but they can be so hard to implement in every day life…especially if these limitations and boundaries are being put to the test by well meaning family members or friends.

Then there are the expectations we place on ourselves to get just one more thing done. We can push for every last minute in every single day, often at great expense to our physical, emotional, and spiritual well being.

I think we all recognize this as wrong, too.

However, the sooner we recognize and accept that we can’t do it all, the better. When we approach everything from the mindset of not being able to get it all done we will be more realistic in what we take on. Taking into account our limitations and our boundaries first means that we will know that we can’t do it all…and we won’t die trying!

We can take this to heart in a practical way by prioritizing the things we do through the filter of our mission statement. Doing this ensures that we are only doing things that are in line with who we want to be during this season in our life.

This step is also greatly helped by creating lists, which I find is helpful with a really good planning system or planner. I’ve got both a blog planner and a life planner that are amazing. Effective systems and delegating to others ways that they can help are also things that we can do to practice the art of not trying to do it all.

Create peace in your life

This is something we must be intentional in. Peace, calm, and fulfillment won’t automatically grace our lives. These are things we must reach out and take.

Creating peace in your life can happen in all kinds of ways. One of my favorite ways to make sure that each day contains at least a few moments of peace is to create what I call “pockets of calm” in my book, A Realistic Action Plan For the Weary Mom: 15 Days of Hope From The Intentional Mom, I also talk about creating your own pretty place in my book.

Your pretty place doesn’t have to be big, it doesn’t have to be perfect, and it doesn’t have to be elaborate, but it has to be an area, even just a small area that breathes life into your soul. Maybe this is your bedroom, maybe this is your living room, or maybe this is even a comfortable chair on your front porch, but having a plan that brings peace and calm into your life is vital.

Decide on some things to let go

We are so good at taking on the busyness of the summer season while not giving account for this in letting things go. We simply cannot take on extra activities, commitments, and projects, without taking things off of our plates somewhere else.

Many moms are adjusting to having kids home right now as school is either off or soon to be off, which only puts more on the plates of moms who are already feeling overloaded.

For this reason, right now decide on:

• one daily chore that you can let go for the rest of the month
• three weekly chores you can let go of for the rest of the month
• one ongoing expectation that you will modify to make it work better in the life of your family

Schedule something to look forward to

I am referring to creating your light at the end of the tunnel. Similar to an incentive, having something to look forward to can serve as a life preserver when times get rough. I don’t know about you, but it is so much easier for me to walk through a trying season when I have something to look forward to pulling me along.

When my husband finishes nursing school, we have committed that at some point within the year that follows he and I will be taking a vacation, which is something we have never done since having kids. It might only be for a few days, but we are doing something to celebrate this long, grueling, and emotionally and physically draining season.

This is the light at the end of my tunnel right now. Having this planned, although not even knowing completely what it will be, keeps me going. This is why I know that having something to look forward to is so essential.

As a mom I know I can get so caught up in the mundane routine, the unending demands and expectations, and the ongoing struggles that my kids can bring to my life every day that the joy gets squeezed right out of my life as a mom.

These little things add up to make a huge difference when it comes to finding my joy once again.