Embracing your kindness, your empathy, your softer side allows you to win on a whole new level. But do you know what may be getting in your way? Your ego. What is your ego telling you about what success looks like, and have you checked in with this lately? Checking in with my ego led me to leave a highly successful corporate career, and to start on a whole new, more aligned path.
My ego had been with me from childhood. Whilst I experienced more joy with English and languages and art, I was able to do well in Maths and Science I chose them. Because they were “harder”, and I would be proving more by doing them. I did a Maths degree for that very reason. I didn’t value the strengths I have that didn’t fit my ego and I spent a corporate career chasing success on this basis.
But hitting my forties really changed me. It truly did. It was gradual, but I stepped into my own and my perspective changed. I had the chance to be professionally coached, and it was a game changer. When faced with what I truly valued, and what I really wanted my life to represent, I knew I had so much more I should be bringing to the table. I chose to be brave and embrace the strengths that I had for so long suppressed, and to start a new company with these values at its very heart. And so my financial planning business was born. Financial advice exclusively for divorcing women. And a mission started to give financial services a feminine shake up, removing the egos, stripping out the noise and motivating women to engage.
What has been the hardest part? Being brave enough to show my empathy. To show up with kindness, with authenticity and vulnerability. But it’s been absolutely the part that has made the difference. Social media has allowed me to shake off the austere and corporate image of financial services, and to talk about financial planning on a human level. But more than this, it’s made it easier for women to reach out and get the advice they need, because instead of feeling intimidated by a big corporate image, they know they are reaching out to someone just like them.
I love this Brenne Brown quote “ When we have the courage to walk into our story and own it, we get to write the ending”.
Have you walked into your story? How will you write the ending? Mine is with empathy and kindness. Removing the ego was the best thing I ever did.
