Like so many people, I spent years funneling energy into things that just weren’t me. Instead of honing my strengths, clarifying what I truly wanted, and developing confidence in my own leadership, I let people and circumstances outside myself drive my choices.
From the outside, things probably looked great. I had a successful career and all the accolades that went with it. But behind that, I was deeply unfulfilled. In following an education, career and even relationship path that the world told me was “right”, I had never stopped to truly get to know myself, what I might want, and what I might have to offer the world.
Essentially, I had never connected with my inner leader – my intuition, my core self, whatever we call it – that part of me just waiting to be unleashed, to guide me, fuel me, and energize me to truly thrive in all areas of my life. I felt disrespected because I wasn’t respecting myself, and once I understood that, everything changed.
What prompted that understanding? Unfortunately, it took a pretty big fall to open my eyes and heart. At what should have been (according to all the “shoulds” I believed) the height of my career and personal life, I found myself divorced, a single mother and in a work situation that required a change, ASAP.
It was like I’d fallen into a dark pit, and through sheer luck of meeting the right people at the right time, I started to see the way out. I realized I needed to make radical changes, but not just externally anymore. I needed to take a brave step and start from within; to learn to be my own guiding light.
