I really enjoyed Mother’s Day weekend this month and although I wasn’t able to actually see my son, he sent me beautiful flowers, we talked, sent SnapChats and texts. It was just yesterday when he would create paper cards (which I still have) and “cook me dinner”. Where did the time go? It seems in a blink of an eye he grew up.
There many graduations this time of year too, and it makes me think of when he first started high school. One chilly fall morning, the sun was coming up as I drove to work, his high school a silhouette and I thought “Before you know it he’ll be graduating.” In the blink of an eye high school was done and it was time for his commencement.
I remember taking him to college with all of his new belongings for his dorm room – he was so excited and it was all I could do to put on a brave face. We unpacked his items and I left so he could settle in. It was so important that he didn’t see me cry because I was happy for his Next Chapter. I sobbed all the way home. It wasn’t that I wasn’t happy for him but it signified a new chapter and it was monumental in my world. This was the beginning of his life on his own and my “mother identity” was taking a beating. In the blink of an eye my world changed.
As women, as employees, as wives, and mothers we can wrap our identity very tightly into other things. In my particular case, I had spent so much time raising my son and making sure he was cared for and had advantages I didn’t have, that when the nest emptied out I went into a bit of a funk. Has anything like this ever happened to you?
When you wrap too much of your identity into something else and then that “something else” shifts it can cause a real problem. Sometimes you handle it and sometimes you just can’t. What should you do? You need to know that you are more than whatever situation you are wrestling with. You are more than a Mom, you are more than a wife, you are more than an employee. Yes, you are all of these things and you are something more at your core.
If the nest empties out, if the company is acquired and your find yourself out of a job, if the marriage ends or if the life you are living just doesn’t bring the joy it once did, what do you want next? What is YOUR Next Chapter? You are more than you think you are and I want to help you figure out what that is.
Please join me for the “From Frustrated to FOCUSED” E-Course that starts next week and get the clarity you deserve! Click on this link to register and scroll down the page for course details.
http://gettingtoclarity.com/fromfrustratedtofocused
I hope to see you there and here’s wishing you the clarity you deserve!
Deb