Why being intentional isn’t enough: The fastest way to achieve work-life balance

Follow the show:

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Everywhere else 

 

In this week's episode, I’m diving into why all the books, tools, and tips you’ve collected on work-life balance haven’t quite clicked yet - and the missing link that will change everything. You’ll hear real stories of working moms who’ve gone from burnout and regret to feeling calm, confident, and fully present in their lives. If you’re tired of wishing for balance and ready to actually experience it, this episode is for you. Let’s make 2025 the year you master work-life balance once and for all!  

Topics in this episode:

  • Why intentionality isn’t enough to achieve work-life balance 

  • The power of "guided intentionality" to fast-track your goals 

  • Real-life stories of working moms transforming burnout into balance 

  • How the Ambitious and Balanced program can guide your journey 

  • Actionable strategies to create sustainable change starting now  

 Show Notes & References:

Enjoying the podcast?

Transcript

Intro

Look, you're smart. You have likely resourced yourself with so many tools and strategies and tips to create work life balance. You listen to this podcast, you read books or audiobooks, you follow influencers, all with this goal of creating a life where work does not take over and whether it is time for yourself and your family without any guilt. And you feel really confident and successful and present in all the things you do. But your intentionality has likely only gone so far. You know what you need to be doing right, the boundaries, the prioritization, the heads downtime, the delegation, the scheduling in time for yourself. You understand a lot of the principles, the things that are required to create work life balance, but it's really hard to put them into practice. In today's episode, I'm talking about why intentionality and resourcing yourself with knowledge is not enough. And inna offer to you the missing link that will make work life happen for you in the fastest way possible. I don't want you to go another day or another year of actually not enjoying the life that you've created, the most amazing life that you have. And this right here in this episode, this is what you need to do next in order to make 2025 the year that you not only learn how to create work life balance and the principles, but actually put them into practice. Are you ready? Let's get to it.

Welcome to the Ambitious and Balanced Working Moms Podcast, your go to resource for integrating your career ambitions with life as a mom. I'm distilling down thousands of coaching conversations I've had with working moms just like you, along with my own personal experience as a mom of two and sharing the most effective tools and strategies to help you quickly feel calm, confident, and in control of your ambitious working mom life. You ready? Let's get to it.

Doors Are Open: Join the Next Ambitious & Balanced Cohort

Working moms, hello! I am so excited to be with you today and to announce that the doors are open to the next cohort of Ambitious and Balanced.

This is a three-month group coaching program for career-focused working moms who want to learn how to prioritize their family and themselves first—while at the same time feeling successful, confident, and productive at work.

In just three months, I will teach you how to create sustainable work-life balance.

Small Group, Big Impact

Now, I only take 10 women into this program because I want to be a part of each of your journeys. I don’t want you to get lost in a big group.

I’m actually tracking your progress through the program and making sure you are on track to experience the work-life balance you truly desire.

The investment for the program is $2,000, and that includes:

  • A guided curriculum

  • Weekly coaching calls

  • An app we use to communicate within the group between calls

  • Six months of monthly group coaching after the initial program

Essentially, you’re getting me as your coach, working with you toward work-life balance for the entirety of 2025. All year long, through every season and circumstance, I will be in your corner—helping you maintain a life where you feel present and successful.

This is really exciting. I literally cannot wait to start working with you. 2025 is going to be your year.

If you want to get into this group, you need to sign up for a consultation call with me. To do that, head to rebeccaolsoncoaching.com/ambitiousandbalanced. There, you’ll find all of the details and can click one of the buttons to sign up for a consultation call.

Why I Created Ambitious & Balanced

Look, I want you to create work-life balance in the most efficient and fastest way possible. And when I created the Ambitious and Balanced group coaching program, one of the questions I asked myself was:

“How can I make this happen for them as fast as possible?”

Why Work-Life Balance Can’t Take Years

And having worked on work-life balance, helping hundreds and hundreds of women over the last eight years go through work-life balance challenges, I have developed lots of tools, strategies, and processes to help people.

But the question I kept asking myself was: how could I make this happen for them fastest?

I don’t want it to take years for you to have the life you want to have. You’re likely already worried about missing out on your kids’ younger years. You’re already anxious about how you’re spending your time and energy—worried about regret and wishing there was just a little bit more time left over for you every day.

“I Feel Like I’m Missing Out on My Son’s Life”

Even today, I was speaking with a woman about joining Ambitious & Balanced. And by the way, she did—and I’m really excited for her.

One of the things she said to me was that she hasn’t been doing drop-offs and pick-ups since taking her recent job, and she feels like she’s missing out on those moments with her son.

Look, if you choose to work, I don’t want you to regret that decision. I don’t want you to feel like you’re not spending enough time with your family, like you’re not doing what’s right for them, or that you’re not giving them your best time and energy.

I Want You to Feel Grounded in Your Decision to Work

I want you to feel so grounded in your decisions to work and when you work—and filled with joy and happiness in the life you already have.

You have literally so many amazing things that are going well for you in your life, and I want you to be happy in it.

Not months from now. Not after the next billing cycle is over. Not when the new hire is up to speed. Not when your spouse helps out more around the house.

I want you to be experiencing work-life balance right now. And I know it is possible for you because I have seen it happen for so many women that I’ve worked with.

The Heart of Balance: Intentionality

The fastest way I’ve discovered to do this—for my clients and for myself—comes down to one thing: being intentional right now.

I don’t just mean through coaching (though we’ll definitely talk about that too). All of us tap into intentionality—likely more than you think. And that’s what I want to spend this podcast episode talking about: the importance of intentionality and focus, and how that is a key piece of the work-life balance puzzle.

Everyday Examples of Intentionality

Every time you read a book to help you learn how to be a better parent, or how to manage your time better, or how to feel more confident—you’re tapping into intentionality and focus.

Every time you listen to a podcast—this podcast for that matter—or any podcast on work-life balance, managing your career in motherhood, or navigating the struggles of being a parent, you’re tapping into intentionality.

The influencers you follow. The people you follow on social media to glean tips and strategies to better your life. The Facebook groups, the mom groups, the community groups, or even the text threads with your working mom friends.

All of those things? They’re you tapping into intentionality.

What Intentionality Really Is

Intentionality is when you resource yourself with knowledge, tools, or steps that help you create work-life balance in your life. And like I said—you already do this.

You already have a level of intentionality guiding you toward your work-life balance goals, otherwise you wouldn’t be here today. In the back of your mind, you have a desire to be a better mom, to manage your life better, to make sure you’re living every minute to the fullest.

Your subconscious is searching out resources to help you meet that goal. Because of course—why reinvent the wheel?

Knowledge Isn’t Enough

Because you listen to this podcast, I already know you’re a great mom. And I know you’re going to figure out how to have a truly successful working mom life.

You’ve likely already resourced yourself with a bunch of knowledge about what it takes to be a successful working mom. You know it requires prioritization. You know it requires boundaries, saying no even when you want to say yes. You know it requires delegating and asking for help. You know it requires commitment to yourself.

And it’s true—all of those things would likely help you feel more balanced and more successful as a working mom.

But if I told you, “Just go out and do them,” you’d likely feel stuck, right? That’s why you’re here. That’s why you’re listening to this podcast.

You simply haven’t been able to figure out how to do the things you already know how to do. Because while you’ve been intentional in resourcing yourself, knowledge alone isn’t what actually moves you forward.

When Intentionality Isn’t Enough: Skylar’s Story

Just like my client Skylar—I’ve talked about her on this podcast before—she first came to me struggling with burnout and trying to figure out how to manage her time well.

She had resourced herself with intentionality and purchased a bunch of planners and time management systems because she thought that’s what she needed in order to create a life that feels balanced. But she wasn’t able to successfully implement the systems that she had purchased and resourced herself with.

She had the best of intentions. She had done enough research, had been intentional enough to even think through some of the systems she thought she needed. But she wasn’t able to just wake up the next day and put those systems into place.

“I Just Gotta…”—Why Knowledge Alone Doesn’t Create Change

I hear this a lot from my clients on their consultation calls with me. When people are looking to join my programs, they often say things like:

  • “I just gotta say no more.”

  • “I just gotta ask for help.”

  • “I just gotta figure out how to shut down my computer at 5:00 and be okay with the things I didn’t get done.”

It all sounds so simple, doesn’t it?

Sherri’s Struggle: “I’m So Tired of Being Tired”

My client Sherri, who’s been very successful in her career up to this point, told me she was so tired of being tired all the time.

She’s midway in her career, and she daydreams sometimes about retirement—when she finally thinks she’ll be able to rest and enjoy her life. So she reads productivity books, follows various influencers, and tries to put into practice the tips and strategies she’s learning.

And just like Skylar, she came to me and said, “I just gotta put all this stuff I already know into practice.”

The Missing Piece: Why Intentionality Alone Doesn’t Work

But here’s the truth: there’s something these women—and really, all of my clients—are missing.

Intentionality is only half the battle. It resources you with knowledge, but it doesn’t necessarily move you into action.

You can’t think your way into different work-life balance habits. You actually have to do something different over time.

Yes, intentionality will help you make little bits of progress. You’ll find tips and tricks along the way that might relieve some stress. You might stumble across an Instagram post that finally clicks. And you might even make small shifts that move the needle toward a more balanced life.

But it won’t happen quickly.

The Fastest Way to Achieve Work-Life Balance

Remember, I am about helping you achieve work-life balance fast. I don’t want you going another day experiencing burnout or feeling like you’re missing out on your kids’ lives—wondering if you’re going to regret the decisions you’re making right now to work.

Here’s the insight I want you to take away:

The fastest way to achieve work-life balance is not just through intentionality. It’s through guided intentionality.

Having a guide—someone who has been there, done that, and teaches this—will show you the fastest way to achieve your goal of work-life balance. Really, the fastest way to achieve any goal.

Guided Intentionality: The Fastest Path to Any Goal

If you think about it—if your goal is weight loss, hiring a personal trainer and a nutritionist is likely going to be the easiest and fastest way.

If you want a new job, hiring a career coach is probably going to get you there the fastest.

If you want to get over some of your emotional triggers or past hurt, working with a therapist will help you get there the fastest.

If you want to build wealth and diversify your money for long-term financial success, you’d work with a financial planner.

And if your child is struggling with math and you want to make sure they pass their next math class, you’d hire a tutor.

When you truly want to get something done and guarantee that you will be successful at reaching your goals, tapping into a guide is literally the fastest way.

Why “I Just Gotta Do Better” Doesn’t Work

Guided intentionality is what gets you out of the mindset of:

  • “I just gotta do better.”

  • “I just gotta do it.”

  • “I just gotta wake up tomorrow and make it happen.”

That type of energy, while intentional, lacks focus and guidance.

Like, literally—how are you going to do it better? What exactly are you going to do differently tomorrow that will make a difference? What is your plan?

A guide is going to ask you these types of questions and then offer their expertise and best practices. They make sure you not only follow through with your plan, but that it’s an effective plan that gets you there the fastest.

Skylar’s Breakthrough: From Failure to Freedom

When Skylar started working with me—remember, she was the one who bought all the planners and time management tools—I knew that mastering her calendar wasn’t going to be the first step.

Instead, it was the thought of failure that was paralyzing her and sucking up so much of her time. It was her not meeting her own expectations and standards, and then feeling incapable in her job and like a failure. That was actually a big cause of her time management struggles.

So together, we worked on that first. We worked on her confidence, believing in her capability, showing her mind why she deserved this job, was worthy of this job, could do this job, and tackle this job.

We built that belief in her first, and then applied some of the time management strategies she had already learned along the way—along with some that I teach my clients as well.

And in about three months, she was working less, not waking up anxious every morning, prioritizing her workouts, experiencing a much more open calendar, and not carrying all of those heavy, hard feelings home with her every day.

She had a guide to help her through the process.

Sherri’s Transformation: Defining Success on Her Own Terms

For Sherri, the tips and tricks she had learned from books and influencers didn’t start working until she stopped caring so much about what other people thought of her.

When she really grounded herself in her work, her work-life balance vision, and her own definition of success—she became infinitely more productive.

She was able to start shutting down her work brain on demand and prioritizing her family in the ways she wanted.

The Role of a Guide in Creating Balance

I was Skylar and Sherri’s guide.

Now, I’m not knee-deep in their lives. But because I have so much expertise and have literally walked so many people through creating a life that feels balanced, I’m able to see exactly what their problem is and solve it quickly with them.

I don’t get lost in the weeds with them and their emotions. I stay above it. I can see exactly the path they need to be on, and then I help them get there as quickly as possible.

Why Self-Help Books Didn’t Work for Me

Now, I’m somebody that has read a lot of self-help books—particularly in my 20s. I had a high level of intentionality, but I could never really get myself to do the exercises and practices they suggested.

I’m assuming many of you are very similar to me, right? I needed accountability. I was intentional enough to resource myself with books and read them, but I would get stuck in the application of it all.

And this is true for a lot of my clients. They are a lot like me.

The Little Voice That Holds You Back

It’s not that you lack the ability to follow through. It’s that you have a little thought in your head that wonders, “Is this really the right thing?”

You have a little voice that says:

  • “Is this even going to work for me?”

  • “Maybe it won’t work for me.”

  • “This is hopeless. This isn’t going to work.”

  • “I don’t have time for this.”

  • “This is selfish.”

Whatever that little voice is telling you, it’s getting in the way of taking your intentionality and putting it into practice to create a life that feels balanced.

Because you already know the strategies: setting boundaries, saying no, prioritizing rest, not logging back on at night, taking email or Slack off your phone. You already know the tips.

Guided Intentionality Makes Balance Four Times Easier

When you move into guided intentionality—working with an actual human being who helps you execute on work-life balance—it becomes four times easier. I promise.

Research shows that when you decide to meet a goal, simply stating that goal gives you a 25% chance of achieving it—even without any other system in place.

But when you invest in accountability—when you have another human being who is going to ask you, push you, and guide you toward that goal—your likelihood of achieving it skyrockets to 95%.

From 25% to 95%: The Power of Accountability

Because you listen to this podcast, because you’ve likely done research on work-life balance, and because you follow other influencers—you already have at least a 25% chance of changing your overworking habits, stopping the people-pleasing, letting go of perfectionism, and actually prioritizing your family and yourself.

But if you work with me—if you join the Ambitious and Balanced program—your chances skyrocket to almost 100%.

That is the power of guided intentionality.

Why Guided Intentionality Works

Guided intentionality is not only the fastest way to hit your goal of work-life balance in 2025—it’s also the most effective. It means a lot less trial and error, because you’re working with a guide who can help you take the right steps the first time.

Look, the last cohort of Ambitious and Balanced is wrapping up right now. We’re in the final weeks of our calls, and I’ve watched these amazing women start to truly prioritize themselves and their families—while still feeling successful at work and problem-solving for how to be just as productive as they’ve always been.

Real Client Wins From the Ambitious & Balanced Cohort

One woman in our group took a full two weeks off at Christmas—and was truly off-off. She never opened her work computer once. She talked about how many memories she made, how restful she felt entering back into work, and how propelled and motivated she felt when she got back to the office.

Another client stopped telling herself how busy and hard life was all the time. Instead, she refocused her mind on how good she was at her job, how valuable she was to her company, and how on top of things she truly was. It wasn’t actually as hard as her brain had been making it out to be.

By dropping the “work is hard” story, she started spending far less time working at night and on weekends. Things felt easier when she tuned into the fact that she really was good at her job, that she knew what she was doing, and that she could finally let that story go.

The Power of Putting Yourself First

Another client discovered just how life-changing it was to carve out a few hours for herself each week.

Everyone tells you—particularly when you’re a new mom—that you’ve got to find time for yourself, take time away from your baby and your family. But when she finally did, she felt like a whole new human. She was more engaged with her family, more present, less rushed, and more focused at work—all because she prioritized herself.

Lightening the Mental Load

Another woman in the cohort started having really intentional conversations with her spouse about sharing the mental load and delegating more.

She actually began noticing how much her spouse was already helping around the house, which made her feel much more like they were a team. The load felt so much lighter because of it.

Breaking the Procrastination Cycle

One client worked on her procrastination—a habit that had been holding her back from making real progress on work projects she had delayed for over a year.

She had a huge breakthrough and took massive steps toward her project goals, finally tackling something that had been on her list forever. Even more importantly, she now has clarity on how to get herself out of the procrastination cycle in the future.

Why I Love Being a Guide

I am so proud of this cohort of women, the progress they’ve made, and that I got to be their guide through it all.

If work-life balance—and putting yourself and your family back at the top of the list—is your goal for 2025, I want you to have no regrets. I want you to feel amazing about yourself, your work, and the life you’ve created.

You already have so much good in your life. Don’t let another day—or another year—go by without truly relishing in it.

Join the Next Ambitious & Balanced Cohort

I’m only taking 10 women into the next cohort of Ambitious and Balanced, a three-month group coaching program that starts on Monday, February 24th.

We begin with Clarity Week—one week of 90-minute daily workshops. This is where we map out the entire process, make clear commitments to your priorities, and learn the tools you need to get back on track. Many women from past cohorts have told me how much they loved Clarity Week and how it set them up for success.

After that, we meet weekly for three months, and then monthly for the rest of the year. That means I will literally be your guide through all of 2025.

Take the Next Step

To get more information and sign up for a 30-minute consultation call—the next step to join—go to:
www.rebeccaolsoncoaching.com/ambitiousandbalanced

Finding a guide is the fastest and most effective way to meet any goal. But in this case, it’s about reaching your goal of true work-life balance.

I would be honored to be that guide. If it’s me—reach out. If it’s not me—find someone else to guide you. I just don’t want you to stay stuck.

This can be the year you propel yourself into the most amazing life you’ve already created—and truly relish all the goodness and joy in it.

Closing Words

Hey working moms, I hope you enjoyed today’s episode. I want to let you know that the next cohort of Ambitious and Balanced is starting soon.

If you want 2025 to be the year you not only learn how to create sustainable work-life balance but also actually put it into practice—so you and your family come first without sacrificing success at your job—then this program is for you.

I’m only taking 10 women, and you’re not going to want to miss this opportunity. To learn more, head to:
www.rebeccaolsoncoaching.com/ambitiousandbalanced

This is the year you feel successful both at work and at home. I can’t wait for you to start.

I’ll see you next week. And until then—let’s get to it.

Rebecca Olson