Personal development is all about changing the way we think about ourselves and all that is around us. It’s about being physically fit, emotionally stable, spiritually aligned, and mentally aggressive. It’s about locating and living out the powers within. This gives us a strong confidence. This gives us a firm footing. This brightens our glow. This allows our innovative and creative juices to freely flow. Most importantly, it speaks loud and clear placing us on the platform of being noticed without aggressively making ourselves tastelessly be seen.
*Society’s standard says men are smart and tough enough while women have to prove their intelligence and strength. Even worse, women are judged by performance and men are judged by their potential. Men are deemed compassionate for their tears of passion while women are mocked as emotionally unstable and weak for tears of compassion shed. The double standard is embed in all that we call human. As women from our past have confided, “It’s just the way things are”.
Now that we’ve put it all out there, let’s talk about the positive aspect – the silver lining. There has to be a wise realization made that we, as women, must master a working balance between the strength and benefits of showcasing feminity and the driven, aggressive, and worthy characteristics of our male counterparts. Learning to avoid bruising their egos yet while also being outspoken, confident, effective, efficient, and knowledgeable enough to run with the best of them.
How do we do that? Getting our “stuff” together personally!
Something I had to learn about business, and even as an employee, is the trust factor. We need to trust and believe our fellow colleagues stance on life and business. We want someone who knows what their talking about and we fully trust that they are integral, authentic, and capable to get the job done. How much more should men expect that of us, as well? We’ve got to showcase our worth, value, wisdom. intelligence, knowledge, trustworthiness, and understanding many times multiplied by ten.
It’s not a matter of ‘acting like a man’. It’s not that we must leave our personal relationships by the wayside or our passionate drive to make a change in our families and the world. Being anyone other than who we were created to be causes us to really put our male counterparts on the defense and devastatingly making ourselves miserable! Think about it, for example, we feel that we must lose our nurturing side in order to run with the big dogs. Neglecting our families and personal passions to run our own businesses or the increase the assets of another. In reality, nurturing is what gives us a greater grasp on leadership, networking, client retention, and influence as a whole! So, that female instinct to nurture and aide will help us shine in the home and in the marketplace!
Anyway we look at it, real advancement professionally requires continual growth
personally. To run with the ‘big dogs’, our male counterparts, we have to be able to know when to shut up and play dead, when to bark, when to beg, when to eat and drink, when to run, when to rest, when to play, when to sit, and most importantly, when to fight. All of that requires a clear mind open to all possibilities, a firm grasp on our feelings, a strong and focused footing, and an attractive, confident, and healthy stance. Only then can we be confident of our ability, our purpose, our offering, our strength, and our influence. Only then can we be fully assured of our ability to juggle our personal, family, and career endeavors. Only then can we apply life management skills to our increase. Only then can we be worthy contenders in a marketplace that sees us as easy to beat competitors. Instead of rolling over and playing dead…we can acknowledge and act.
It’s not in their hands…it’s in our own. If we accept and pursue our ‘A’ game.
BE ENCOURAGED. BE EMPOWERED. BE HAPPY.
*Taken from Dee Dee Myers, “Why Women Should Rule The World”.
