This is a quick post mainly for myself. It’s something that I want to document on here so that I can return to it this time next year.
Earlier this week I made a list of all the career ideas and courses I’ve been thinking about since January. I’ve been in my own head about it over the last few months but voicing some of those thoughts out loud led me to put pen to paper and everything became so much clearer. There’s something about writing things out by hand that helps to untangle the mess and I was able to find a little perspective on the situation, at last. Very quickly I realised that the majority of my ideas were not really my own, but more the suggestions of friends, family and acquaintances from various groups I’ve been taking my youngest to. It’s so easy to get swept up in what you’re surrounded by, even when those comments come from a place of love and good intentions. But just because I have children doesn’t mean I need to let that automatically dictate every single area of my life, including my career.
I’m someone who will always champion and support people when they tell me about their new job or a new business they’re starting. There’s been a lot of that going on recently. I think a lot of women my age seem to be having a career pivot or trying to carve something out for themselves that they perhaps lost somewhere along the way in motherhood. I know of a few people who have returned to studying, one friend has set up their own forest school, one is working on equine qualifications and another has launched a very creative business. What a privilege to know of so many awesome women. All super inspiring and as some of them have been saying, these things work very nicely around children.
Since the new year I’ve thought that perhaps I’d like to do a PGCE, train as a swimming teacher, have a nosey into what it takes to set up a forest school or, ultimate curve ball, cyber security. Let’s be honest, most of these things just wouldn’t be for me apart from potentially training to be a swimming teacher but even then, perhaps not.
I have concluded that what I do/what I did before is exactly where my mind should be. It’s super varied, has the option of progress and diversification and keeps me self-employed and flexible. Most importantly, I’m good at it.
Something I’ve realised this week is that growth doesn’t always mean starting over. Instead, it can be about leaning into existing strengths and doubling down on what I already do.