2023 is all about equity—the quality of being “fair.” This year’s International Women’s Day theme, #EmbraceEquity, encourages everyone to “do their part in creating a fair and equal world within their sphere of influence.” We believe that the process of equity can only truly begin once we’ve taken a look inward through the lens of equity. What biases have we internalized and how do they hold us back? How can we define our own unique needs and seek support to satisfy each one? From there, we are better equipped to model equity as a process and advocate for others through allyship. When we are first fair to ourselves, we can challenge inequities in our workplaces and beyond—breaking down bias and moving toward equal.
Creating a Healthy Balance While Working From Home
Through clever scheduling, a few ground rules and some hard core flexible thinking, I have figured out how to share my workspace with the (not-so)-little ones. When you exclusively work from home, physical boundaries between work and personal life can feel virtually nonexistent. Even the most organized can still find difficulty successfully managing a career and a household in the same space.
The following are a few key strategies I implement throughout the day to be successful, bring my whole self to work, and be present in my life. Over the years these have changed a bit, but the idea of creating a healthy balance for me to feel successful remains the same.
Through the Lens of Motherhood
4 Skills Successful Female Leaders Have
Stimulating Personal Growth for a Purposeful New Year
We’ve all heard the saying, “in this world, you’re either growing or you’re dying,” and while personal development comes naturally to some, for others it’s uncomfortable. Or, maybe we just struggle to make time for ourselves. Whatever the reason, here at Gild, we want to empower women to lead life with greater confidence and passion. Here are 10 ways you can stimulate personal growth.
Goal Update: Time Management
I believe goal updates like this one are so important. Sometimes we fall into a pattern of seeing someone else’s posts or goals and assume that the road to achieving them is easy. The reality for me is that something that seems small—taking control of my time—has a huge impact on my well-being and sanity, but it doesn’t come without its own bumps in the road. Whatever your challenge is… keep going!
Why Your Resolution “Failure” is an Opportunity for True Success
Photo by Mizuno K
New Year’s resolutions have been around for awhile. 4,000 years, to be specific. Ever since the Babylonians started making promises to their gods in exchange for a favorable year, we have been making deals with ourselves that in the new year we will be different- that we will be “better”. We have had 4,000 years to get really good at making New Year’s resolutions, and still only about 8% of us actually stick to them.
In fact, we are only three days into the second month of this “new year” and already I have heard several friends say that they have “given up”. I even had a friend describe herself as a “complete failure” because she hadn’t kept her resolution to go to the gym four times a week so far this year.
Sure, not achieving a goal that you have set for yourself is frustrating, and it’s natural to feel dejected. Just like anytime we are feeling like we have failed, we have a choice: we can let the feeling of failure overcome us and become a part of who we are, or we can objectively examine our situation and use it as yet another opportunity for self improvement.
If you find yourself feeling like you have failed on your quest for self-improvement in 2017, I would encourage you to ask yourself these few questions:
Why did I “fail”?
Let’s talk about the friend I mentioned earlier that feels like a “complete failure” just weeks into the new year. I asked her why she thought she had “failed” and she responded that she had only made it to the gym four times in a week once so far. At the time, she only had three weeks of data (out of the 52 that make up a year). When I reminded her that she still had 49 weeks to improve her score, it didn’t seem to help at all. She had already resolved herself to be a “complete failure” just three weeks in.
So, I tried another approach. I began to ask her, as I suggest that you do with yourself, what she had been doing over those three weeks. It turns out that things had really picked up at work in the new year (as they often do) and she had been working 11 hour days. On top of that, she had also been sick with a terrible cold. She didn’t feel as though she could take off work, so she was exhausted when she got home from work and opted for sleep rather than early morning workouts.
In other words, she absolutely hadn’t “failed” at anything. At all.
Is what I resolved to do something that will actually make me “better”?
At the end of December, Bustle surveyed 822 millennials (97% of which identified as female) how they feel about New Year’s resolutions. The results showed that millennial women overwhelmingly focus their resolutions in two areas: to lose weight and exercise more, and to become a better, happier person.
Based on my experience as a woman for the 29.5 years I’ve been alive, I can say with certainty that many women equate the ideas of losing weight to becoming a better, happier person. And while I am a proponent of exercise for many reasons, I also believe strongly that the association between “thinness” and “happiness” is one of the biggest issues plaguing women today.
So, ask yourself- is what you resolved something that will actually make you “better”? If your reasoning behind exercising more or focusing on eating healthy foods is to improve your mood, sleep, or overall quality of life, then yes- that counts as “better”. But if all you want is to fit into smaller jeans, I can tell you from personal experience that you will never be good enough.
Would you make that resolution for your best friend?
Perhaps the most powerful statistic that came from Bustle’s survey was the answer to their question: “What New Year’s resolution would you make for your best friend?”
Source: Bustle
Ask yourself this same question. Was what you resolved for your friend the same thing you resolved for yourself? Was it even in the same “resolution family”? According to Bustle, only two women of the 822 surveyed reported that they would want their friend to lose weight in 2017. In fact, most women want their friends to practice self care, be kinder to themselves, to go after what they want at work, and to stand up for themselves.
New research tells us that women often fight for others harder than they do themselves at work. We also know how much easier it can be to tell our friends they are special, beautiful, smart, and strong than it is to tell ourselves those same things.
But isn’t that what New Year’s resolutions are all about? Making ourselves better? If your resolution for your friend is kinder than the one you have for yourself, it might be time to change your thinking. You haven’t failed because you didn’t keep your resolution. You have only failed by choosing the wrong resolution at the beginning.
It’s no longer January 1- who cares? Now is as good a time as any to resolve to be better. Be better to yourself, kinder to yourself, and more forgiving with yourself. New year, new you- and you deserve it.
If you’re interested in spreading confidence and self-love with the women you work with, let us know.
Goal: Make Time My Friend Again
Over the past year, I have consistently felt overwhelmed by the amount of things I needed to tackle in a day. It has been as though each day suspiciously gets 5 minutes shorter, and I am unable to finish my perpetual to-do list.This is no way to live.
So I am trying to identify some ways to better manage my time—a skill that I feel like I once had, but has now escaped me as my plate has become more full. This is not a guide on how to do it right, but rather, a look into my attempts at course correcting.