Balance, Schmalance Meteor podcast

3y ago 27:44

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We (Bethann and Virginia, not the collective ‘we’) actively resist the notion of “work-life balance”. It has too many vibes of work and life being mutually exclusive, as if they’re balanced against each other on a scale. And, in a lot of #SciComm, work and life are already so stinkin’ integrated.
So, we lean into the framework of “work-life harmony”. We aim for getting work done and fulfilling ourselves along the way.
This gets complicated when we’re doing scicomm for someone else:

How fully do you want to “assume” the identity of that brand?
When do you byline as yourself versus the brand?
How do you keep from taking feedback personally?
What if there’s no brand strategy, so every scicomm piece hits a bottleneck?

Navigating thin boundary lines is necessary in scicomm coaching and mentorship, too:

Reconciling when you can work to make something better and when the client will have to take it the rest of the way.
Setting our own metrics for success since we can’t control if a client actually does what we recommend.
Helping someone grow without getting too involved in their business and life.
Knowing when to say goodbye, with the acknowledgement that we often don’t get to know “the rest of the story” for someone we mentor, once they move beyond us.

Work-life harmony is about active decisions, not passive participation. We’re not always going to get things the way we want them, but we’re trying.
What about you? What keeps you up in the middle of the night? What are you so invested in that it pops up without invitation?
It’s not always bad... but the unbidden things indicate that your investment could be more deliberate. You don’t necessarily have to get out or get rid of it. Just reckon with the space it’s occupying.
Bonus! Bethann’s running a big-picture goals workshop in January. We’ll be looking at trying to align our vision for our own lives, rather than pitting various priorities against each other. If you want to join that convo, sign up at meteorscicomm.org/courses.
*** Join this conversation: follow us here and say hello (tell us what you're making time for!) on Twitter with @MeteorSciComm (https://www.twitter.com/meteorscicomm).
Share this episode using this link: https://meteorscicomm.org/2021/11/24/ep9-balance-schmalance/

31 episodes

How fully do you want to “assume” the identity of that brand?
When do you byline as yourself versus the brand?
How do you keep from taking feedback personally?
What if there’s no brand strategy, so every scicomm piece hits a bottleneck?

Navigating thin boundary lines is necessary in scicomm coaching and mentorship, too:

Reconciling when you can work to make something better and when the client will have to take it the rest of the way.
Setting our own metrics for success since we can’t control if a client actually does what we recommend.
Helping someone grow without getting too involved in their business and life.
Knowing when to say goodbye, with the acknowledgement that we often don’t get to know “the rest of the story” for someone we mentor, once they move beyond us.

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Balance, schmalance