Can you believe we are half-way through 2010 already?

I’ve always heard that the older you get, the faster the years fly by. Toss a couple of children into that equation, and precious time zooms by at warp speed!

With 2010’s half-way mark upon us, it seems like a great time to take a look at how we’ve evolved so far this year.  When I say “take a look,” I mean it as simply a check-in point, not as a place of judgment.

I think, for me, one of the biggest shifts I have made in the past six months is truly believing, trusting, and embracing that I am exactly where I am supposed to be in my life right now.

Early last year, when I was first returning to work and starting my own business, I was by-default applying many rules that served me back when I was working full-time as a single, childless, twenty-something career-focused professional. I finally realized, later last year, that those rules were not serving me well in my current life as a not-so-twenty-something, “part-time”, work-from-home, business-owner, wife and mother of two young girls.

I went from up to down, excited to deflated, inspired to exhausted, and back and forth – sometimes over the course of days, sometimes within minutes.

I worried that maybe it was too soon, maybe it was just too much, maybe I was setting myself and my family up for unnecessary struggles.

Then, right before the holidays, I had an epiphany – a major “A-ha” light bulb moment! I wasn’t waffling and I wasn’t making a some sort of return-to-work mistake – I was experiencing a natural transition phase of motherhood!

Up until our younger daughter started pre-K full-time, I had been completely submerged in the “All about Being A Mom” pool, and I had been happy there all the while.  But, as our girls grew older and more independent, I had started asking myself, “What does this mean for me? Who am I and what do I want to do now that I have a little more time and space available in my life?”  That is when I started dipping my toes in the “Making Time forME” pool, which was symbolically christened with the birth of my own new business, MomEvolve.

From there, the flickering “A-ha!” light bulb started glowing like a lighthouse beacon.  I realized that I wasn’t indecisively waffling or completely losing my mind (at least not any more so than previously ). I had been experiencing the completely natural transition of having one foot still firmly planted in the “All About Being A Mom” pool and the other foot testing out the waters of the new and exciting, yet still unfamiliar and somewhat intimidating, “Making Time for ME” pool. I was straddling both pools, so of course I would sometimes be more adventurous trying out the new one, while at other times, needing to pull back more fully into the more familiar one as my family, my Self, and my comfort level dictated.

That realization made all the difference and completely shifted my perspective and experience of this very normal transition phase. It was like having a pain, worrying it is something ominous and potentially life-threatening, and then having a trusted doctor confirm that it is a very normal, minor, and temporary condition.

Now I allow myself to dive into the “Making Time for ME” pool head-first when my family, personal, and professional conditions are right, while I feel just as great about plunging myself fully back into the mommy-only pool when it is necessary or just plain feels good.  Most days are some combination of the two, and that’s completely fine with me.

I know now that I am exactly where I am supposed to be at this moment, and I will get where I am going in my own perfect time.  I have learned to really listen to my ME and let it guide me into whichever pool is best for whatever reason and for however long is right for me!