Is Your Ambition On Pause?
I've always been able to get pretty good jobs: I'm smart, articulate, I have a strong work ethic, take initiative, I'm a pretty good problem solver and a team player, and I'm willing to lead with or without a title. Despite the hard work I put in, I still found myself in a job that was unfulfilling and that failed to provide the challenge and opportunity I sought. It was a pretty good job, but I was just bored. I wanted more; I knew that – I just had no clue of how to get it. Have you ever been in that place? Or maybe you are there now.
As a working mother, and definitely as a single mother, there is every excuse as to why our ambition gets put on pause: We are doing everything by ourselves, there's not enough time, money, support, _______ you fill in the blank. But the excuses don't stop our heart from wanting. There’s a proverb that says, "a dream deferred makes the heart sick." It is unhealthy to put off and dismiss the things your heart wants — regardless of the reason. I’ve often wondered if the reason so many of us are depressed or tired is that we expend so much energy masking and burying our true desires so we can get through the day; a seemingly endless grind that requires less and less of our true brilliance.
Here's the first move I made once I reconnected with my own ambition: I read (or should I say studied) Barbara Stanny's Secrets of Six-Figure Women. One of the first ideas from this book that caught my attention was the reason why most women don't earn six figures. It wasn’t education, lack of role models, or lack of skills. According to Stanny, most women don’t earn six figures because they don’t think they can. It simply never crosses their minds.
Four years after I first read Secrets of Six-Figure Women, I had worked my way to earning six figures. This book changed my mind, and once I began to think differently I began to "do" differently. And wouldn't you know it — I got different and better results. I share this story not because I want to flaunt or brag (although a little bragging does a girl good every now and then); I share it because it is true. I lived and worked and pushed through every moment of those four years determined to make life better for my family, by making it better for myself. And if it can be true for me it can be true for any other woman willing enough and bold enough to hit the play button on her ambition.
Here are five tips for taking your ambition off pause:
- Drop the excuses.
- Dare to pursue the brilliance you were created for.
- Discover what it is you really want in your life right now.
- Develop a plan for how to make it happen.
- Do the work required to live authentically and work with passion.
Bio: Tai Goodwin, The Career Makeover Coach is career and success coach, who helps working mothers discover their purposes, pursue their passions and excel in their chosen professional ambitions. For more information about this working single mother with over 12 years in training and development experience, check out the Career Makeover Coach blog, where she blogs about strategies for creating a career you can love and live with. She also writes for Career Savvy 101.com.
