Sometime back, I tweeted and posted on Facebook about the Always video #LikeAGirl. It became an online sensation for a while and if you missed it, watch it here for a quick lesson on empowering our daughters and each other.
Raising three daughters, I am always thrilled when messages come out that collaborate lessons I am trying to teach them, since, so often, what they see does not.
This ad reminded me of a group of women who came to my zipline canopy tour business called, Ride Like A Girl. It was a mountain biking club and they were all women, with bumper stickers on their cars and wearing t-shirts sporting the slogan, “I ride like a girl.”
My girls were young (7,10 and 12) when these fun and wild women came through our doors. I remember one of my girls looking at me and asking, “What does that mean–ride like a girl?” I said it means they are really strong.
When I worked in corporate America I spent a great deal of energy making sure no one noticed I was “a girl.”
Don’t show your feelings. Don’t be too soft on people when they have problems. Be logical, decisive and forceful. Do not let them know you used your intuition for any decision, even if you do–find facts to prove it after you already know. And most important, laugh at the jokes about women and don’t act offended.
I learned early on that to get ahead I could not be #likeagirl. I am glad every time someone tells my son and my daughters that being like a girl is a good thing. Because if you have to hide a very basic fact of your being to be powerful; you learn to doubt every other part of yourself, too.
Are there any parts of being a woman (or a girl) that you have hidden away to be accepted or powerful? Maybe it is time to reclaim all of you. Because when you bring all of you to your life again, you also have all that energy you’ve been using to keep these parts of you hidden. It takes a lot of energy to not be you.
