Last Friday was the last day of our school year and, as a parent of two kids at different school levels, I am still exhausted.
Almost every day in the last two weeks included a parent-inclusive event for one of my kids. Being present required additional planning and flexibility, including working hours I wouldn’t usually work.
And: I was there.
That hasn’t always been true. My global career demanded that I travel. For the first few years of my kids’ lives, I was too scared and had leaky availability boundaries.
Sometimes I attended meetings that I don’t remember for work that didn’t matter and missed kid events that did matter.
Occasionally I traveled for ego instead of impact and I missed a kid’s experience that they still remember.
I’m not in the camp that parents need to attend all things or always center their kids. I know it is brave to identify what works for me, my values and ambitions, as well as each of my kids and the family as a whole.
I am squarely in the camp of taking the time, energy, and heart to answer first the question, “What matters here?” to then bravely answer the question: “What do I really want?”
You are community creature with obligations and connection, is it is very important that you understand what matters in each situation. The good news is that you have been conditioned to catalogue what is important before you make a decision.
But you are also a human, with goals, dreams, values, and desires. Sadly, you fail yourself, and your brave dreams, when you stick exclusively to the conditioning and fail to bravely challenge the status quo with the question “What do I really want?
So this week on the Build Your Brave Career, I share one of my career transformation stories, using my Build Your Brave Framework, to answer the question, “What do I really want?”