Tell me if any of this resonates for you. As a working mom, climbing my way up the corporate ladder, I felt like the world was telling me:

If you love your family, if you aren’t selfish, and if you want to be a good mom, you will

• Stop being ambitious and focus on your family.
• Accept the level you are at or maybe you can go one more level, but stop dreaming of being an executive or entrepreneur. That can come later if ever. For the next 18 years focus on your kids.
• Quit working altogether ——-> if you aren’t money hungry, you will choose this option.

This is such a false setup, it’s full of misnomers.  Here are some truths:

• Men and women can have demanding fulfilling careers AND be amazing, engaged parents.
• Your ambition is not dirty. You want more because you are meant for more.
• Typically, first-level managers work the most hours and have the least flexibility.  Senior leadership roles often come with more freedom and decision-making. Therefore, limiting your ambition to a certain level of leadership may leave you stuck in the hardest role of all to blend work and home life.
• The world is judgmental, everyone has their own view of what good parenting looks like, often full of historical gender roles. It is pointless to try to do it all. You will never meet others’ standards.

Instead of trying to meet the world’s or your family’s expectations, create your own. Decide what matters to you, and live a congruent life to the way you define success. That is the process I go through with my 1:1 clients and that we will go through as a group at our 2023 retreat in Mexico. We will take time away from the busyness of day-to-day life to slow down and decide what we want out of our life. We will define what extraordinary looks like for each one of us, and create our true north that will align our thoughts and behavior after we leave paradise and return to our work and families. Join our wait list to learn more about this transformative get-away in paradise.

You only live once. In The 5 Regrets of the Dying a palliative nurse recorded the reflections of her patients who were terminally ill, there was one common theme:

“I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.” 

It’s time to stop living for others and start designing the life you want.

Join me. Let’s Evolve Together.