MUMS LOVING LIFE AND LEADERSHIP

Let’s chat Life & Leadership.

Do you love or loathe them?

Do they excite or intimidate you?

Maybe you’ll enjoy life more ‘when’ fill-in-the-blank (things calm down, the renovations are  finished, the children are out of this phase, you go on that holiday, you get time for you etc etc) or you don’t think leadership’s relevant to you.

Let’s agree on something before we move on. If you’re raising or working with children, you’re leading. As John Quincy Adams states:

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, or become more, you are a leader.”

I want to go a step deeper. You’re not just the leader of children, you’re leading YOU. Self-leadership matters. It’s the ability for you to take compassionate responsibility for your dreaming, learning, doing and becoming. To achieve a goal, set a boundary, and to live your most authentic, purposeful life. To take back your power and feel empowered.

Note: I encourage ‘compassionate responsibility’. Be kind to yourself, ok? 🥰

So, you’re a leader. Now what?

This is the exciting part! You get to choose 👏👏👏

Who and how do you want to be? 

What legacy and impact do you want to leave on the hearts of others?

What’s a quality you DON’T want to have?! 🙅‍♀️ 

Questions like these pick you up out of the now – the workload, the to-do lists, the tantrums, the drama – and move you to a higher level. That’s a fun part of leadership: designing a life you LOVE. Imagine that! I think a lot of mums forget they get to make choices in their days.

Even in the most challenging seasons, you still have agency. It’s a human privilege or as Viktor Frankl states,

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.”

Start today, right now. What first step can you choose as you lean into loving life and leadership?

Is it to choose:

• Slowing down
• Nutrition
• Time alone
• Calling your mum
• Asking for help
• Putting on music?

See, leadership isn’t telling people - like your children, spouse or colleagues - what to do or how to be. There might be times for those conversations, but true leadership is about support, championing and modelling. And to be there for others, you need to have a full cup, a solid reserve that can hold the needs of others.

So head off now, eager to bring your focus back to you. Lead yourself first so you can be the best for others. And guess what? As a by-product, you’ll love life more too. Cheers to that!

Catherine is a life coach, creator of EMPOWERED the online membership for mums and the owner of Developing Dreams, award winning preschools on the Central Coast of NSW. Reach out if you want to love life and leadership.