How to Motivate Yourself at Work After a Maternity Leave

Many mothers have a tough time getting back to work after taking maternity leave, as they often feel guilty about the fact that they are going to work leaving behind their babies at work. However, research has a completely different take on the same. According to a study conducted by the Harvard Business School, a working mother has more ambitious daughters and kinder sons.

However, many mothers feel that they need to quit. Just because they take a break for a stipulated period of time, they start questioning themselves. Are they fit enough to go back to work? Have they lost touch with their former working selves? Also, childbirth is not easy on the body and the mind. It takes mothers a long time to start feeling their normal selves again. When you are swamped by these questions, you are sure to question your decision to get back to work. You need just self-motivation to get back to work. Find out how you can do just that.

The Discomfort is Temporary

The transition period is just temporary. You need to tell yourself that there will be pitfalls along the way, but you’ll learn from it. Taking care of a baby may be new for you. You know that being a working mom is new terrain for you. Being self-critical may be natural for you, you may even think that it may not be easy.

However, you need to be kinder to yourself, it may not be easy today, but it is surely going to be easy a few days from now. You may even start enjoying it again, in a different kind of way. Once you gain confidence, you’ll be back to doing what you love most even reveling in your new role being a working mother.

The Benefits of Working

When faced with doubt, it is always good to remember why you began working in the first place. Did you choose to work only because of the big fat paycheck you get after the end of the month? Or because you genuinely love working and love choosing to work with your colleagues working towards a common goal. So, what has changed is that you had a baby. That’s hardly the reason why should you change your goal.

Also, if you think quitting is what you need to do now, you may not feel similarly in the days to come. You’ll just have a long career gap which you may not be able to explain particularly well at the next interview table. In a few years’ time your child will be in kindergarten and a few more years down the line he/she may not need as they need now, what then? You need to then ask yourself is quitting really worth it?

Work Makes You A Better Person

When everyone works hard, they invariably feel happier and even feel more valued. So, before you make the decision of quitting, make a bulleted list of all the things that your boss and colleagues and the greater industry get out of having you? Yes, praise yourself. It is important to remind yourself of the finer points time and time again.

When you feel more valued by your managers and coworkers, you’ll feel better about the compromises you have made in your life. Don’t forget to make the list, on some days when you are feeling low and have a strong urge to quit, you have to remind yourself you are made of better and sterner stuff. You have waged your battles before and come out of it victorious. The battle may be different, but you are still that strong warrior who never loses her streak of resilience.

Get Your Focus Back

Focus is one of the most enormous issues when you first go back, so you need to try phasing back in really helps, as per various studies.  Unsurprisingly, women who experience regrets are more likely to leave their jobs.

Also, women who have shorter leaves tend to have more regrets. If you just extend the leave, you may have lesser regrets and feel more focused to get back to work.

So, there you go, quitting is never an answer, you need to be the person you may want your child to be, a strong mom, who refuses to quit whatever maybe the situation.