Have You Fallen Into the Superwoman Trap? You may put out a catastrophe without batting an eyelash. Every day, without fail, you arrive at the office early, stay late, work through lunch and take additional work home on the weekends for good measure. If that is you, then you have fallen head first into the superwoman trap.
Let’s see…
A while ago, I ran a workshop in Big Brothers Big Sisters of NYC entitled”Escaping The Super Woman Trap”. During this workshop I had an chance to meet some pretty, amazing girls who were working on overload as they were spreading themselves too thin. We joined, commiserated and took away some food for thought about the best way to honor our own lives in the present time, identify what is draining us and retrain family and friends to honor our energy limitations and priorities.
As the workshop leader, I shared some useful strategies and encouraged the girls to discuss tips of their own. I also asked the girls to swap e-mail addresses as a method of expanding their network and holding themselves accountable. My wheels are turning around the notion of arranging a weekend, out-of-town escape where we can find a change of scenery so as to make the little changes that add up to a life well lived.
Keep in mind
The bottom line here is we have all got to juggle competing priorities – work, family, personal objectives and so forth. But it’s equally important to not forget to take time yourself. As women we do not take time yourself as often as we should and we pay for it big time. We pay with our health, peace of mind, psychological well-being and the quality of our relationsips.
If you’re a superwoman who needs to remove the cape, I encourage you to take some time out this week and think about one thing you could do in order to take off the superwoman cape – or at least put it down for awhile. Try to get in the habit of taking 15 to 30 minutes every morning to get back in tune with you. When you put yourself on top of your to-do-list you are feeling less crazed and life becomes more manageable.