Image by Reflections Photography
Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow.
Anthony J. D’Angelo.
This is a quote I only just came across and it stood out to me. The funny thing is, it would not have meant much to me a year ago. I think a big part of myself had forgotten how much I had loved learning. I shut myself off to knew experiences. The truth is I was afraid. Afraid of leaving my little safe bubble. Life was great after all. I had a great family, home, and friends. I had convinced myself that was all I needed to be happy, to feel fulfilled.
My youngest started kindergarten last year and it shook me. I realised I was facing a crossroads. He would soon be at school and people were starting to ask me, “what are you going to do?” To be honest it was a question that really bugged me! Why? Well if I am going to be honest, it bothered me for a couple of reasons.
1. Because people seem to assume if you don’t have a job you have so much leisure time that you can do whatever you want. Yes a stay at home mum has more free time than a working mum, but we do actually have plenty to keep us busy too. We have lives outside of our children.
2. And it bothered me because the truth is I didn’t know what it was I wanted to do! I wanted to do it all. I wanted to show my children, my daughters that you can have it all. You can be a successful career woman, whilst being an awesome wife, mum, sister, aunt and friend. I wanted them to see me as Super Woman. Always working hard, and doing it with a smile on my face. And the truth is I felt like I was failing them. I was judging myself way too harshly. I felt judged by other women about being a stay at home mum, but the only person who was truly judging me, was ME!
Tweet me: We are often our harshest critic, and hardest on ourselves. Well no more!
It was time for some serious self reflection and exploration! I thought about going back to my career as a nurse, but there were many reasons this was not the right choice. Shift work is always hard, but plenty of mums do it. How would my children get to and from school? We have no bus or other transport service to their school from where we live, and it’s a half an hour drive. Maybe I could figure something out, but the truth is it is not where my passion lies. The thought of going back to nursing was not exciting me. And this made me feel even more guilty. Here I am with this amazing degree and I am wasting it. I felt so selfish, and self indulgent.
I felt I was getting to a point where all I was doing was beating myself up. All I could think about was what to do with my life now that my youngest child was almost ready for school. I felt lost, confused and overwhelmed.
Enough was enough!
It really was! It was time for me to just get honest with myself. To open my heart up to what it was I truly wanted to do. But more than that, what I was meant to be doing. Nursing is an amazing career and there are aspects of it that I love, areas in which I thrive, but it is not my passion. Within nursing I was, and am still, passionate about helping people, about making a difference. Being there for people, caring, nurturing, listening. What I didn’t love was that you are so busy, that you barely get to make a real difference! I want to inspire people and nurture their souls! I want to heal more than their bodies, I want to heal their hearts, their minds, and their spirits.
What I now see is what I needed to do. I needed to be true to myself. I needed to stop freaking out about what I was going to do, and just listen! I had to allow myself to be quiet. I had to be mindful of what I already knew. I had always known my true purpose, but I had to be silent to hear it.
I had to learn! I had to remember that if I wanted to grow, if I truly wanted to move forward, I had to be willing to keep learning. And this is why I love this quote, because being passionate and open to learning is what allows us to keep growing into who we were always meant to be.
Last year I learnt a lot! Now I am addicted to learning and to growing. To embracing change and to listening to me inner voice. I have learnt so much that now I even teach it to others through my life guide business and my writing. I continue everyday to be open to change, to the lessons of life, to embracing new experiences and exploring outside of my bubble. It was safe inside my bubble, but the view on the outside is magnificent!
Now I no longer want to be Super Woman, I simply want to be ME, to be true to myself. I want to keep learning, and to keep embracing life. The example I now want to set for my children is to live life, to be open to learning, to exploring who they are, and to always listen to their inner voice, to always be their own truth!
I want that for you too! Keep learning, and keep being you.
Thanks for joining me on this Reflective Friday, love Mackenzie xx
We would love you to link up with us
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We are Mackenzie and Janine your hosts. We are inviting you to join us every Friday for a cocktail, mocktail, or a good cup of tea to reflect on your week, your thoughts, life, love, adventures, all from the reflective prompts we will provide you with.
Our Vision: We wish to inspire your creativity. Through reflective thoughts and writing we hope to help you fulfil your life’s dreams and support you in discovering your true passions.
How it works: Each week we will supply you with 3 prompts to choose from. You simply choose the one that inspires you and start writing! Our prompts will range from quotes or questions to reflect upon, perhaps an image or a statement, whatever we feel inspired by we will share with you, our lovely new Link-Up friends. It is reflective, it is fun, and it is a great way to connect with amazing writers and unleash your creativity.
What will you get out of this experience: Linking up with Friday Reflections is a great way to find fresh inspiration for your writing and blogging. It provides you with endless ideas to write about! You have the support of other bloggers visiting your site, offering advice and support. It is a great way to connect with other passionate writers and make new and wonderful friendships! Linking up with us will also increase your site traffic and adds many more comments on your post and opportunities for your work to be shared on social media. On top of all that Mackenzie and Janine will be putting their heads together each week and choosing their favourite post.This could be you! If you are chosen you will be the ‘Friday Reflections featured writer‘! We will also tweet a link to your post, and a link on Facebook to let all our followers know how fabulous you are. It’s a great way to grow your personal following. Linking up can be done on either Janine’s Website Reflections From A Red Head or Mackenzie’s Website Reflections From Me. Rules:
- After Linking Up, you must read and leave a comment on both the hosts websites.
- You must read and comment on the post linked up before your own.
- Please also read and comment on at least one other linked up post that grabs your attention.
- Of course you are welcome to read as many as you like! Remember if someone reads and comments on yours it is lovely to return the favour.
- Janine and Mackenzie will read all posts linked up with Friday Reflections, and then choose their featured writer! The Link up will be open from Friday afternoon GMT + 8 until the following midday Wednesday.
- If you link up something inappropriate, Janine and Mackenzie reserve the right to remove your post.
- All posts must be your own, and original content. One post per week.
- Be kind! Us writer’s work hard, show each other respect at ALL times.
- Most importantly have FUN, be creative, reflect and love what you do!
Social Media. Sharing is caring. Tweet your posts to us and @FridayReflect using the hashtag #FridayReflections or #RefectiveFridays. Find us on Twitter Join our Facebook Group where you can share your weekly post. We will also add our new prompts here and announce our weekly Friday Reflections Featured Writer. It could be you! Final Word. We are so excited to begin our journey with you, to invite old friends to join us on this reflective journey, and meet wonderful new friends and amazing bloggers along the way! Feel free to Link-Up each week, or whenever you are feeling inspired.
I have also linked this post with the lovely Sunday Stars
18 comments
I’m so glad you came to the realisation that you don’t want to Superwoman. It’s such an unattainable belief so many of us have – I’ve definitely been there, striving for the superhuman stakes and failing every time. And yep, there was a reason for those failures. Im learning my lessons for sure! Have a lovely weekend Mac!
Yes we sure get a kick in the butt from life when we try to do too much
Mackenzie, I completely identify with what you wrote today – I went through much the same. From being a corporate hotshot to – Idontknowwhatodonow. I reached the same realization that we’re our worst critics – not at all helped by people who rub it in and ask – so now what?
You are a SuperWoman – the best kind! I loved that you highlighted learning in order to grow.
Huge hugs – and what fabulous prompts for this week!
Thank you so much for your kind words and continued support xx
This is a great quote. I’m glad you have found your own version of Superwoman, it’s so difficult sometimes to realise that, like everything, one definition does not suit all. I’m working on mine, I want to leave the stereo type behind too. I have a post to add here but just plucking up the courage to publish it first- such a scary cat X
Yes I really liked this quote, I have learned so much lately. Be brave, it will help you grow xx
I completely understand where you’re coming from here. We think that other people are judging u, when really we are judging ourselves and we’re probably just projecting. We have to be 100% behind our own decisions, if we’re not this is what happens, we end up beating ourselves up and no good can come from that.
Thanks for sharing #TwinklyTuesday
Bx
You are so right, we need to 100% behind our own decisions
This post was really poignant for me. I’ve made myself rather ill/stressed trying to be “Superwoman” and now I’ve decided to go easy on myself, because an ill/stressed Mama can’t look after anybody properly. This is such a good read.
Bx
Thank you for this comment, it meant a lot. Everything you say is so true!
Great post and so true, its so easy to fill your mind with others expectations on you instead of what makes you happy x
Thanks Sarah, it is not always easy listening to ourselves, but it is so important
This is such a fab post. There is no such thing as superwoman. There is just hard working women, whether they are hard working at being a full time mummy or hard working at a career, or hardworking at both. I am so glad you have realised what you want and are able to do it. I see how important learning is, we never really stop and in fact I enrolled myself on a course recently. Just a little online course about child behaviour and I really really need to start reading but I was so interested, I just signed up on a whim. You never know where it might come in handy in future years! Thanks so much for linking up with #TwinklyTuesday
Congrats on your new course, that is wonderful!
It’s such a mom thing to want to be superwoman, to be everyone’s everything. The thing is, we can do great things, but not all of them at the same time.
So true!
Fab post so great you’ve realised what you want to do, i also love to learn i think thats why I’ve fallen in love with blogging so much there’s something new to learn every single day thanks so much for linking up to #sundaystars
I couldn’t agree more, life is a journey and we are continuously learning along the way, that’s what makes it such an interesting path. Thanks for sharing #sundaystars
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