I’m not blaming our moms. They were a product of a changing time. And, without them trailblazing their way into the corporate world, we wouldn’t have many of the possibilities available to us today. But this idea of “having it all” being the key to female entrepreneurial success is, quite frankly, insidious. It sets an impossible standard to achieve. That’s because “life” and “business” don’t fit neatly into time slots on your calendar. We learned this when the COVID pandemic hit. All of a sudden, “life” took over in importance, and career-minded women as well as entrepreneurial women had to grapple with support structures that vanished overnight. So, we started to relearn what we had learned and figure out ways to fit it all in. And that meant that some things had to go. And many of us started going on a journey of figuring out what was most important in life. We started looking under the hood of our own beliefs about ourselves, and sometimes found we didn’t like what was lurking under there. But we often learned to accept ourselves as we are and give ourselves grace. And, we made it. We emerged – stronger than ever before. Right? As busy-ness has crept back into life post-pandemic, it’s given many of us just the excuse we needed to stop nurturing ourselves and throwing our efforts back into business. No longer do we need to examine how we’re doing inside – we can look outside now and find all manner of self-validation in the fruit of our efforts and the praise we get from clients and peers. After all, revenue is up. Orders are pouring in. We’ve hired new employees. Our calendars are booked end- to-end with important meetings. People need us. We’re important. Sure, we think we’ve got it all together. We are good at convincing ourselves that “we’ve got this” or “I’m invincible.” We are, after all, masters of creating time through efficiency. I’m here to tell you, most of us are just one big crisis away from falling apart. That’s because life is full of surprises. And if every ounce of your energy and every part of your day is booked solid, there’s little room to manage the unexpected.
It recently happened to me when I underestimated just how much time elder caregiving takes. While I thought I was prepared to lightly place the two pieces of bread around my sandwich generation life, I quickly learned I was living an existence that felt more like a panini. “After all, revenue is up. Orders are pouring in. We’ve hired new employees. Our calendars are booked end-to-end with important meetings. People need us. We’re important.”
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