Growing up I loved watching Disney movies. To be honest, I still do. Today we have role models that are powerful like Elsa and Moana. They act from an empowered place. They are who they are, and others need to learn to accept them for who they are. My favorites in my youth were Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. They don’t seem all that empowered now, they look like two role models who needed to be saved.
In 1981 Colette Dowling published a book The Cinderella Complex. It’s a theory that women are afraid of independence and have an unconscious desire to be taken care of by others. While I would love to say that I haven’t fallen into this trap, I probably have. But, 2019 was the year that I started working on reversing this story. I wanted someone to come and save me. Whether it was from financial issues, having to work, or just being alone and wanting someone to be in a relationship with. I wanted someone else to come and save me from life’s problems. Like a fairy tale, I dreamed that by having someone “save me” all my problems would disappear.
There was just one problem, nobody else could save me. I had to learn to save myself. I had to take control and be empowered in my own life. The idea that I had been waiting to be saved was a difficult one to swallow. Why would I do that? I don’t really have an explanation. There are many theories that our experiences up to the ages of 7 to 8 shape who we become as adults. Could that include something as simple as watching a movie repeatedly? Maybe. There is also the conditioning of women by society that could be a part of it. Growing up women have been taught that our main responsibility is to be a wife and a mother. Until the 1970’s, women only had a few career options, including being a secretary or teacher. Once you were married, your occupation became that of a housewife. Women didn’t even obtain the right to vote until 1920.
I was born at the end of 1980, so lots of changes were still underway regarding the role of women in the workplace and the home. It is still shifting today. In order to become the person that I am meant to be, I have had to examine my programing and work to save myself. Only I can do that. I can have someone else as a partner in my journey and discuss a path forward, but the ultimate decision is mine, as it is yours. Only you can change your life.
For me, 2019 has meant stepping into the person that I’m meant to be. I’m still a work in progress, as are you, and we all are until the day we breathe our last breath.
In fairy tales, movies, and books, there is an end. Many of them ending with a happily ever after. We spend our lives seeking our own version of happily ever after, but what if we have it wrong? What if our version of happily ever after is meant to be about ourselves? We can never be truly happy in our lives if we don’t love who we are. Another person can’t make you love yourself. It’s an inside job.
So, as we close out not only another year, but another decade, what is your goal for 2020? Who do you want to become? Let me know. Do you want to know more about what I do? Click here to book a discovery session or an appointment.