If your twenties and thirties were anything like mine, you’ll remember how women were competitive with each other, be it in the boardroom, at playgroups, at book group for heaven’s sake.
We’d been raised to think not only could we have it all but that we had a duty to have it all. So building families and careers often involved elbowing other women aside. There was pressure to achieve and create, but make it all look effortless.
In our forties and fifties, I had hoped by this age we would have moved beyond this competitiveness but it is still very much present. It’s just more covert and no matter how you wrap it up or disguise it – it sucks.
My hope is that as women we can step out of fear and scarcity, particularly with other women. Stop judging and lean more into empathy, which will inevitably lead to more genuine connections.
By this age, we have shared experiences—we have all struggled in different ways. We all have a story and our stories matter, because we matter.
But how do we do this? How do we step out of judgement and into empathy so that we can show up wholeheartedly and be the ripple effect for other women?
Try adopting these thoughts to see the impact they have:
➡️ “Everybody is doing the best they can with the resources they have on hand.”
➡️ “There’s plenty of everything to go around.”
➡️ “Everybody is on their own journey, but we don’t have to go it alone.”
➡️ “We all have a story and our stories matter because we matter.”
We CAN lift each other up and celebrate wins. I believe that we’re better together.
Princess Diana was a woman of impact and shouted out other women’s names. Her advice, “Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you.”
One of my permanent goals is to be the ripple effect for other women in my life. To be the woman who does shout other women’s names in a room full of opportunity. That room could be social media content. It could be conversations at lunches or a referral or review given without being asked. Shouting is about generosity and inclusivity. Springboarding others.
I’m obsessed with it.
In the coming weeks and months, I’m going to be shouting out other women’s names on my platforms. They’ll be women I know from different corners of my life, who work in fields including the arts, fashion, finance, health, media and technology.
They all have impact, not just influence.
🌟 Who is a woman of impact that you can shout out about today? Let’s start a ripple effect by shouting out their names and why they have such a positive impact.
