Do you ever look at other women with their shiny, big careers and wish you were like them?
Do you see women standing on stage, addressing a room of thousands and gasp at their confidence, while berating yourself for feeling nervous about talking at the P&C meeting?
Do you watch your friend head off on a business trip and wish that you were important enough that someone would pay for you to fly business class to the other side of the world?
I meet a lot of women who feel like you.
Very often their kids are well into school and the parenting focus is different from those demanding pre-school years. Now they have more time for themselves and they start to regret the choices they made earlier on.
I shouldn’t have given up work
What if I had changed career sooner?
Why didn’t I take that promotion?
But how useful are those shoulda, woulda, couldas?
Remember, you made the choices you did for a reason.
While you were at home with your baby, shiny career lady was probably dropping her baby off at day care and dealing with the feelings that come with that. Let’s be honest, you were probably judging her.
She may have had to prep for days to go on that first business trip – cooking meals, organising pickups and drop offs. It’s likely she fell asleep in a heap on the business class flight.
She was probably terrified before that first presentation, but she kept doing them until the fear became a little less. Even though that meant she was working late at night and missed out on bedtime stories with her kids occasionally.
Comparing yourself to her is not useful. Just as it wouldn’t have been useful for her to compare herself to you. We all have our own stories.
But what would be useful is to ask yourself what you want now?
Do you want to stand on a stage in front of thousands or do you want to be such an expert on something that you could talk about it for hours?
Do you want to go on business trips or do you just want the freedom to have some time to yourself?
You can keep berating yourself for the choices you made in the past or you can focus on the working years you have left …. it’s probably many … and what you want to do with them.
And if it’s finally time to work towards a career you’ll love then you can download my FREE toolkit Six Simple Steps to get Started on your Career change.
Time to move on from the past.
Denny