Take Ownership of Your Work-Life Balance in 2026

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In this week’s episode of the podcast, I’m talking directly to the working mom who’s thinking, “I cannot do another year like this.” We’re diving into what it really looks like to take back ownership of your life in 2026, not through hustle or perfect systems, but through three grounded shifts that bring clarity, confidence, and control. If you want next year to feel calmer, more intentional, and less reactive, this episode will help you see exactly where to start and what to stop tolerating 

Topics in this episode: 

  • Taking full ownership of how 2026 feels instead of blaming circumstances 

  • Getting clear on what actually matters to you in this season of motherhood and work 

  • Learning how to redirect unhelpful inner dialogue and choose more supportive thoughts 

  • Focusing only on what you can control and letting go of the rest 

  • Making your yes and no intentional so your calendar reflects your real priorities 

Show Notes & References:   

Transcript

Intro

If you've caught yourself thinking, there's no way I can do another year like this, stop and listen to this episode. I am breaking down the three shifts that working moms need to make in order to take back ownership of your time, your energy, and your days in 2026. 

We'll talk about the clarity to know what actually matters to you, the confidence to trust your own voice again, and the kind of control that comes with choosing your life instead of reacting to it. 

If you want 2026 to feel different, calmer, steadier, more in control, this episode is going to show you exactly where to start. 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.

Taking Back Ownership of 2026 as a Working Mom

All right, working moms. I’m excited about this episode today because we are taking back ownership of 2026. That is what we are talking about here.

If you’ve been following along over the last couple of episodes on the podcast, or maybe you came to the New Year Reset workshop that I hosted last week, you will know that we have been discussing the upcoming year and what it’s going to take for you to sort of get out of burnout or the exhaustion cycles that you have maybe been in in 2025.

Some of those overworking, people-pleasing, not prioritizing yourself and all those kinds of things, like getting out of those habits so that you can really lead a life that feels balanced.

And so today we’re going to get more into what it’s going to take for you to actually have the 2026 year that you desire. Like, what’s the process of creating the ambitious and balanced life that you really want and taking back ownership?

Your 2026 Work-Life Balance Strategy Call: Final Week to Book

And real quick, before we jump in, I want you to know that this is the final week for you to book your work-life balance strategy call with me this year.

Okay, so this is where we’re going to spend 30 minutes together, really digging into your goals for 2026 and what you want work-life balance to look like in your life.

In specific, I’m going to help you break down exactly what it’s going to take for you to create that life. And we’re going to talk about, you know, what it’s going to ultimately take for you to get there.

Okay. So if you are looking for some individual support and a process to really get started in 2026 on the right foot, where you’re going to be more present, there’s going to be more time for yourself, more time for your family, and a whole lot less exhaustion, you’re definitely going to want to book your time to speak with me this week.

Okay. There’s a link in the show notes. You’re going to do that. I would suggest you do that right now, before you even listen on so you don’t forget. Okay? So this is the time.

Taking Ownership Starts Here

All right, so let’s dig into ownership over your 2026. Okay? There’s sort of this love-hate relationship with the idea of ownership, right. Obviously, there’s an element of independence associated with it. There’s a level of control when we talk about ownership over your life.

And I am certain you would not want anyone else to have ownership over your life and your decisions and your goals and your ability to meet those goals, right.

The challenge, though, is when you take full ownership over your life and your choices and your work-life balance, meaning you are taking full ownership over how you’re spending your time and what you’re thinking about and what you’re prioritizing and what you’re not prioritizing.

Like, when you do that, you also have to take ownership over the things in your life that you’d like to change or the things that maybe aren’t going so well, right.

You Can’t Take Ownership Without Letting Go of Blame

Meaning you can no longer blame your circumstances or this season of life or your kids or your partner or anything, really. Because it’s all on you when we’re talking about ownership, right?

No, it’s not just the busy season or it’s just busier at the end of the year. No, it’s not your boss and the fact that they don’t have kids and they don’t understand. No, it’s not that you work at a startup and it’s just company culture, right?

No, it’s not that your clients are needy and they expect you to be available to them after hours. No, it’s not that your kids are young and they just need more support from you. No.

Right now, I’m not suggesting that your circumstances aren’t challenging or very difficult. I think that there are circumstances that are truly more difficult to create work-life balance than others.

I’m just wanting to highlight the idea that just because your circumstances may be challenging doesn’t mean that you can’t have the life that you want, right? That’s a really empowering way to think.

When you take ownership over your life and when you take ownership over 2026, you get to be in the driver’s seat of how your life feels, right? And what you do and what your calendar looks like and when you get home and when you’re available to work and when you don’t work. And you get to be in control of it, right?

So if anything, I want this episode to be about empowerment for you to take back ownership and control over your work-life balance in 2026.

The Question You Need to Ask Yourself

And ownership starts with this question. What do I want? What do I want, right?

How do you want to spend time next year? What do you want to focus on? How much time do you want to spend with your kids? How much time do you want to spend working? What do you want to prioritize? What do you want to leave behind in 2025? How do you want the new year to feel, right?

These are all clarifying questions because the first step of an ambitious and balanced life, and it’s the first step in the process that I teach in this podcast community as well as in my group coaching cohort, is clarity.

You have to know and decide what your priorities are and what’s important to you and where you’re going to want to spend your time, right? That’s when true ownership happens.

And there’s never a right or wrong to what you decide you want and what you want to prioritize, right? You just get to decide what’s most important to you and what you decide to prioritize in this new year.

Do you want to prioritize protecting family mealtimes? Do you want to be more present at bath time or bedtime and feel less distracted? Do you want to feel less tethered to your phone?

Do you want to learn how to be more productive and efficient with your time while you’re at work so you get more things done? Do you want to get promoted this next year and be seen as an expert at what you do in your company?

Do you want life to feel more fun? Do you want to go on more everyday adventures with your family? You want to laugh more, right?

To have ownership over your 2026, you have to start by making some clarifying decisions around what you want and what you don’t want.

I could tell you that for me, in 2026, one of the things I’m leaving behind is my not enough thinking. It has crept up on me at the end of this year. I think it’s combining with some pre-menopausal hormonal stuff that’s going on. I just didn’t quite see it creep in the way I usually do. But I am leaving that behind in 2026.

I want to view my life through the lens of I’m doing everything right. This is exactly where I want to be. I love my life.

That’s the mindset, the energy that I want in 2026. It’s part of my vision.

Owning What You’re Doing Right, Even in Uncertainty

I was just having a conversation with a client this morning who sort of is a little bit in limbo right now, job-wise, life-wise. There’s kind of lots of moving pieces for her, and she’s feeling a bit unsettled and not really at peace with anything that she’s doing.

And so I asked her what it was that she was really leaning into right now and what were the things that she was choosing not to do right now.

And at the end, I said, it sounds like you’re prioritizing all the things that you want to right now. Sounds like you’re doing it all right.

To which she paused and said, yeah, I think I am, actually.

And I said, you need to own that, girl. Own the things that you’re doing and the things you’re choosing to prioritize and not prioritize.

When You Don’t Know What You Want (You’re Not Alone)

And if you’re listening to this thinking, I don’t have any idea what I want, and in fact, you’re thinking that’s like a big piece of the problem, right? Please know that you are not alone.

The intersection of motherhood and career is very confusing, particularly in the earlier years of kid life. Many women that join the Ambitious and Balanced cohorts are experiencing a level of confusion.

But you could literally go back through this podcast right now. You can even go into the transcript, look at all of the questions that I’ve asked you. This is a starting point for you to take ownership over your 2026.

You can literally jot all these questions down and spend some time answering them. It’s going to help you find direction, right? Questions like, what’s important to me? How do I want to spend my time? What do I want to let go of in 2025? What do I want to lean into?

This can literally be a roadmap for you to set priorities and goals for yourself in 2026.

And of course, if you’re somebody that needs a little bit of additional support, you need someone to guide you through the process, please, please, please schedule that 30-minute work-life balance strategy call, right.

That is a big portion of what we do on that call is we do the clarifying work of what work-life balance looks like, what’s getting in the way, and what you’re going to need to do to achieve that in the upcoming year.

Okay. So be sure to grab that link in the show notes. 

So the first step to ownership is to get clear on your priorities, right. The second step to ownership in 2026 is to take back control of your thought life, right. In other words, what’s going on inside of you, right.

You could have the most perfect schedule, perfect job, great family, be prioritizing all of the right things. But if internally your thoughts are I’m not doing enough, I should be doing more, I’m not achieving enough, I’m not a good enough mom, I can’t do this, I should be further ahead, right?

If your internal thoughts are sort of doing their own thing and wreaking havoc and not really matching the life that you’re creating, you’re never going to be able to achieve the ambitious and balanced life that you want in 2026, right.

Owning work-life balance and your personal goals in 2026 is going to require you taking ownership of the way that you think and ultimately the way that you feel. You’ve heard me say this on the podcast a lot.

You Can’t Always Control Your First Thought, But You Can Choose Your Second

I actually just created a journal for my clients, and on the front of the journal, I actually had this printed on it. Okay, so here’s what it says: You can’t always help your first thought, but you can always choose your second.

Meaning, we have a human brain that might default to a lot of not enough thinking, I’m not good enough types of thoughts. It is your job to redirect those thoughts to something more supportive and helpful. I call those your second thoughts, right.

Remember, you don’t think in fact. Meaning just because you thought, I didn’t get enough done today, doesn’t mean it’s factually true, right? You think in perspective all of the time. Literally.

Your brain is designed to be a fact flashlight, like hyper-focused on a very specific perspective. Usually it’s the negative one. When you take ownership, you learn how to open up your flashlight to become more of a floodlight, where you get to see a variety of perspectives that you get to choose from.

And then ultimately choosing the one that is more supportive of you and your goals. That’s what we want for you. That’s where ownership happens.

You Get to Choose the Story You Tell Yourself About Your Day

Meaning, as an example, if your brain defaults most days to I didn’t get enough done today. I wish I would have gotten more done, that’s fine. That’s your first thought, right?

Another perspective you could choose to have is, I got everything done that was necessary today. Or you could choose to say, I got done what was most important. Or you can choose to think, I get paid to prioritize and reprioritize all day long, and I did just that.

Or you can think, my job’s not life or death. I got done today what I could, and that’s good enough.

You literally just get to decide how you want to think about how much you got done today.

How You Narrate Your Life Shapes How It Feels

As an example, last week in the Ambitious and Balanced weekly cohort call, we were talking about Thanksgiving because it was the week after Thanksgiving. And there were all these stories from women in the cohort that were talking about their Thanksgiving, and they were like, yeah, it was okay. Or it was pretty exhausting was another one that I heard.

But when we really started to dig in and talk about how their Thanksgiving went, most of them said, I wouldn’t change a thing. Actually, it was exactly what I had planned to do. Maybe I got most of the things done that I wanted to. Didn’t quite get all of it done, but generally speaking, it was exactly what I wanted.

And so I said to them, why not narrate your Thanksgiving as if it was great? Why narrate it as being exhausting? Why narrate it as being okay? Why narrate it with a big sigh?

If you’re living exactly the life that you always wanted to live on most levels, why not say you live an amazing life, right?

You just get to choose how you narrate your life. You get to choose how you think about your life.

Now, you can’t always help the first thought that you have, your first thought perspective about yourself, about how much you got done, about how your kids are responding, all the things. You can’t always help your first thought, but you can always choose your second, okay?

Step two to taking ownership of 2026 is taking back ownership of your thought life, what’s going on inside of you, and cultivating a really supportive inner cheerleader. Inner cheerleader. Excuse me. Within you, okay?

Take Ownership of What You Can Actually Control

So the third step is to take ownership only over the things that you can control. So we like to delegate ownership of our priorities and our calendar and our focus and our energy to the things that are not within our control, right?

Things like what time you get emails, or if a client messages you or texts you after hours, or if you had enough time to get all the things done today that you wanted to get done, or if your kid is having a meltdown on your way out the door, or if your husband or partner is stepping up and packing lunches for the kids or cleaning up the house or making dinner, right.

You never have control over anyone else but you.

Shifting the Focus From Forcing Change to Reclaiming Power

I was having a coaching session with a client a couple of weeks ago who was really struggling with their five-year-old, who’s very capable of getting himself dressed and ready, getting his shoes on, all of the things.

But nine times out of ten, maybe it’s even ten out of ten, right, the kid doesn’t choose to do that. And so it’s a daily battle of clothing and shoes and brushing teeth and all of the things.

And so we were having this conversation about how to lessen this fight in the morning that is like a constant drain or energy drainer for her, and how to make the mornings less exhausting, you know, less combative.

And so I asked her, what are you actually in control of here? You can’t ever control if your kid decides to put their shoes on by themselves or to put their clothes on that you’ve picked out for them, right? So what are you in control of?

Her response? I’m in control of how I respond, how I feel in this situation and towards my child. 

When You Take Ownership, Solutions Become Possible

Absolutely. I said, let’s focus on that because you are in fact fully in control over how you respond to your resistant child. And you can actually feel some of her power come back to her.

As we started this conversation, she had been feeling so defeated and trying to force her child, figure out how to force her child to do something that the child didn’t want to do. And then the reality is she was never really going to make that happen at all.

And if she did, it was going to feel terrible because she was forcing another human being to do something, which never feels good to us.

And so once we took the attention and the solution off of getting her kid to do something different, and instead we put it on herself and how she was responding and how she wanted to show up and how she could be more patient and feel more connected, and she started to think about how she could make her morning go more smoothly, all of a sudden we had this strategic plan that was totally within her possibility of making happen, right.

She took full ownership over the solution to making her mornings go better.

Yeah, but Rebecca, my work days are filled with like back-to-back meetings, right. I never have enough time to get all the things done that I need to get done. I always feel like there is more to do, and so I have to work late in order to get all those things done.

Taking Back Ownership of Your Calendar and Time

And I’m coming up with another example of what I hear from my clients all the time, and I’m sure many of you can relate, right? A lot of women do not take ownership and full power over their calendar. That’s another area I see where ownership needs to happen, right.

It sort of gets delegated out to whatever meetings get put on your calendar or whatever expectations your clients have of you, or your boss has of you for that matter, right.

More time is wasted on agenda-less meetings that could otherwise be summed up in an email or could be attended to by somebody else on your team than almost any other time suck from my clients, right.

You have full ownership over saying no, right. You do not have to have an automatic yes to every meeting that comes in or every little like, hey, do you have five minutes or 15 minutes? Like, you don’t have to say yes to that.

If somebody asks you to do something for them last minute that’s going to require you to deprioritize something that’s important to you that you had planned to get done, you don’t have to automatically say yes to that.

 

You Own Your Yes and Your No

Now, I assume, of course, in some instances you’re going to take that meeting and you’re going to be helpful and you’re going to say yes to whatever that last-minute request is. But that’s an exception, not a rule.

You completely own what you say yes to and what you say no to, and when you choose to work and when you don’t, and when you’re available to your team and when you’re not, and if you choose to work and stay available on the weekends or on a vacation or over a holiday or not, right?

I’m not saying those choices are easy. I’m just saying nobody else makes those decisions for you but you.

And if the consequence of saying no is too great, meaning it’s going to go down on your performance review or there’ll be some other consequence or kind of punishment, if you will, as a result of saying no, then you might not be in the right workplace, right? And you have full ownership and control over that as well.

A Ruthlessly Edited Life Is Full Ownership

Well, at the beginning of this episode, remember I said to you, ownership over your work-life balance is super empowering, right? And you wouldn’t want anyone else to have ownership over your life and your choices but you.

But the challenging part of ownership means you have to take ownership over the things that are not working for you, over the people-pleasing behaviors, over the late-night perfecting habits, over the worrying about what other people think.

If you are taking ownership over the good results in your life, or you want to take ownership over the results in your life, then you also have to take ownership over the not-so-good things as well, right? I don’t like to call them bad. They’re just kind of like the less desirable results in your life as well.

If in 2026 you want to achieve the work-life balance that you desire, you have to take ownership over your yes and your no. That is the thing you actually have control of, right? Nobody else is making decisions for you, and you have to let go of the things that you are ultimately not in control of.

How people feel. How people respond. What other people do.

You’ve heard me say this on the podcast many times before, but an ambitious and balanced life is a ruthlessly edited life. It’s where you are going all in and focusing on the things that you choose and letting go of the rest.

That’s full ownership right there.

That’s what I want for you in 2026. I want you to take back control of your goals and the vision and tone for your year. And I want you to take back control over your internal dialogue and how you speak to yourself.

And I want you to be in full control of your yes and your no. Your calendar. Your commitments.

If 2025 Exhausted You, 2026 Can Be Different

Working moms, if 2025 was a year that sort of got away from you, it felt like you were in a constant cycle of responding to fires and couldn’t get ahead. Feeling exhausted, feeling behind all the time, overworking, maybe even a little burned out.

That does not have to be your 2026.

You deserve an ambitious, fun, adventurous, belly-laughing year, combined with rest and presence and calm. That is an ambitious and balanced life. That’s what we’re about right here in this community.

If that has been on your vision board for 2026, I want to circle back to that one-on-one work-life balance strategy call. I’m hosting them for the rest of the week. There’s still plenty of time to get on my calendar.

You can go to the show notes for the link to find that work-life balance strategy call. It is a 30-minute call. We will find time this week for you and me to discuss your visions for 2026, what’s getting in the way of you achieving that vision, and then what exactly you need to do to make your 2026 goals happen for you.

I got you, working moms. I’m here to support you. I believe that you can have full ownership over exactly the way you want your 2026 to go.

Don’t settle for anything less.

I will see you on those calls or until next week. Let’s get to it.

Feeling the Holiday Pressure? Take a Deep Breath

Hey there. If you’re already feeling the holiday pressure starting to build — the full calendar, the expectations, the guilt — take a deep breath, because it doesn’t have to be that way.

Every year I used to tell myself, I just need to make it magical for everyone. But by the time Christmas morning came, I was so tired of doing it all, I barely felt any joy.

Join the $9 Boundaries & Balance Holiday Survival Session

That’s why I created Boundaries and Balance: Your Holiday Survival Session. This is a 30-minute private call where we’ll get to the root of your holiday stress, get clear on what you actually want this season to look like, and create your personalized holiday boundary plan.

It’s just $9, and you’ll walk away knowing exactly what to prioritize, what to release, and how to stay grounded when things get tough — so that you can actually enjoy the holidays instead of just get through them.

I’m only offering these sessions through Thanksgiving, and there are a limited number of spots available, so don’t wait. You can grab your session using the link in the show notes.

Let’s make this the year where you feel calm, confident, and in control of your holiday season.

Rebecca Olson