Want to Know What Working Moms Talk About When No One Else is Around?

Last week, I co-hosted an event for HeyMama, a membership organization that supports, celebrates, and connects working moms.

It was a packed house.

Ok Emily, spill the tea! What do working moms talk about when no one else is around?

Did the women complain about their bosses?

Their clients?

Their spouses?

NOPE!

Did they talk about how much harder it is to be a working mom?

It is challenging to be a working mom, but that wasn’t the focus. If anything, we talked about the advantages of being a woman. We talked about how it has helped us in our careers.

So what was the focus of the evening? The focus was on “Aiming Higher!” And let me be clear—that does NOT mean doing more. We do plenty of that. More than people know.

Aiming Higher is for all of us and it is about…

Knowing yourself. It invites you to get really clear on what matters to you. What do you love to do? How do you want to live your life?

It’s about dreaming even bigger. Going for it. Believing in yourself. And no longer playing small. It is about manifesting, because our thoughts, beliefs, and feelings train our brains so we can make those thoughts reality. Professional athletes do it. Why should we, the everyday warriors, sit on the sidelines and just watch in awe?

It is about the opportunities that show up for us and how we grab ahold of them.

And it is about letting go. Letting go of unhealthy expectations of ourselves and of others. Letting go of being all things to all people at the expense of ourselves.

It’s about what you learn from the “wake-up” moments: health crises, near-death experiences, toxic relationships. And it is not a coincidence that we often get these wake-up calls when we have been ignoring our wellbeing or our true potential.

And maybe, just maybe, we can head off these crises if we only dare to really listen to ourselves and to each other. And last, Aiming Higher is about togetherness. It is about generously offering support and it is about the ability to receive support as well. At the event, we talked about how, for some people, it is hard to see their own worth, what they have to give; and for many of us, it can be even harder to ask for support. What we do know is that generosity of spirit and an openness to receive is the place from which powerful relationships are built. And from there, we can do anything—together.

So, we invite you to join the conversation we started last week with all these working moms, by asking yourself: “How will I Aim Higher for myself and how will I create the conditions for those I lead to Aim Higher, too?”

When we create the right conditions, we can achieve the incredible.