Written By: Lauren Howard
Hey you:
I see you.
You’re that burned-out working parent who does everything for everyone.
And I think there are more of you now than ever.
I see you because I was you, in the fetal position on the couch you never usually got to use because everything hit you all at once and there was nothing left to give . . .
I see you crying to your partner that it’s like your brain and your body are disconnected, and even though you’re telling yourself to move, your body is not receiving messages right now. The transmitter between the two is down.
You think the mistake was sitting down in the first place.
The mistake was not sitting down sooner.
I see you beating yourself up for not having more fuel to go go go . . .
I see you worried that the house of cards that you so carefully built to shield your inadequacies as a mother, an executive, a colleague, an employee, a spouse, a friend, a sister, a daughter, and all of the other things is about to be blown over with just a light breeze.
I need you to know something. Listen up.
The house of cards wasn’t built to shield inadequacy.
You are so much more than adequate.
The house of cards was built to perpetuate the incorrect notion that you could survive being everything to everyone without being anything to yourself.
And that? That ish needs to be blown over.
Tear. It. Down.
There is no trophy for running yourself into the ground.
No one is waiting at the other of an all-nighter with a medal, a sports drink, and a pat on the back.
No one.
Your body broke to send you a message that your brain wasn’t ready to listen to.
You cried because you were so exhausted of being empty because you never took time to fill yourself back up. As if a gas mask just magically refills itself once all of the fuel has been used.
You can still be everything that you want, but you can’t do it the way that you have in the past.
So, go. Break. Break so you can fix things.
A fulfilled life with more family time, more quality time, professional dreams, and personal aspirations is just around the corner.
But you need to break first so we can put you back together stronger.
I see you. I love you. I was you.
You’re perfectly imperfect, even when you’re broken.
The places where you’re put back together are the most interesting parts of you.
Founder & CEO at elletwo
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