There�s this gal I work with�the one who adopted a baby about a year and a half ago. Her office is right next door to mine. Ever since her baby was born, she�s been the typical frenzied, stressed out working mother. There�s never enough time to do everything that needs to be done, let alone enough time to spend with the baby. She�s got it written all over her face. Burn out.
Hey, I�ve been there.
Then I made a bold move, and I�ve been living a less harried, if not poorer, life ever since. My level of job, and LIFE satisfaction jumped up by a thousand percent.
So she came into my office this morning to ask me some questions. She was nearly in tears, as she told me her wishes. I asked if she�d talked to her boss yet, and she said yes. All she had to do was come up with a workable plan. And so she was trying to do just that, and then it hit: her independence and self-reliance would be put on hold. She would be dependent on someone else for the first time since she was a teenager.
Folks, let me tell you how scary this is. I don�t care if it�s your husband or your parents, or whoever it is that you're about to become financially dependent on, when you�ve been a self-sufficient, independent career woman for all of your adult life, and then faced with the prospect of losing that, no matter how noble the cause, well, it�s terrifying. Reduced income, loss of health insurance, loss of paid holidays, loss of vacation accrual, and sometimes, loss of retirement benefits.
It takes a gigantic leap of faith to make this move. Faith in your marriage, your partner, your resolve. But most of all, faith that it�s the right thing to do. Unless you�ve been there, it�s impossible to imagine how difficult this is. Which is why, I think, she came to see me this morning.
I�ve been there, and I�ve made it work. In this company, I�m a success story and that makes me proud. She was looking for reassurance, and I gave it to her. With both barrels!
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