You had a life before you were a mom- I know you did!
And I’m guessing you were pretty good at whatever you were doing before your kid(s) came along.
Maybe you were climbing the corporate ladder- on the fast track to professional success.
Or maybe you were making the world a better place as a Peace Corps volunteer, social activist or in any of the many under appreciated, underpaid fields rather patronizingly called the “helping professions.”
Perhaps you were following your muse, creating beauty and meaning through art, dance, music, literature, etc…
Most likely, some combination of these- because if you’re like most of the moms I know, you are a multi-dimensional and multi-talented woman!
Smart, talented and capable, that’s you.
Do you ever miss those days now?
Do you long for the days when you dressed like a grownup and had lunch with clients or colleagues?
Do you miss being respected and rewarded (with MONEY!) for your experience and expertise instead of being met with resistance or eye rolls from your kids or even your husband?
Most of the time you feel pretty good about the choices you made to pull back on your career to raise your family, but do you ever get those flashes of envy (once in a blue moon!) when you hear that someone you know has just gotten a promotion, made partner, been published or had a show go up?
Ouch… this one really smarts….
Before I learned that coaching wasn’t some weird goofy thing that only applied to the really rich or really messed up, I had a love/hate relationship with my college and grad. school alumni magazines.
It wasn’t so much that I wanted what those other women had, but rather that their steady forward progress made it look like they had found their THING.
That’s what made me so jealous (or is it envious?)
I hadn’t yet found my THING. The THINGs that I thought were my thing before my son was born, weren’t my thing after all…
I’d changed since having a kid and the things that might have been my thing before, weren’t anymore for various reasons. My priorities shifted, my interests expanded and the time available was varied and sometimes unpredictable.
But still I knew there was some THING out there for me, and once I figured it out, I could totally ROCK.
So when I finally did find my THING, something that I could bring my whole self to- intellect and intuition, experience and ignorance, the whole ball of wax… well, let’s just say that you won’t hear me whisper that word that rhymes with ‘witch’ under my breath anymore.
How about you? Has the green-eyed monster ever bitten you in the butt? What’s your THING?
