"𝗜 𝗱𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗜 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗸𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝘂𝗽 𝗮𝗻𝘆𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲."

"𝗜 𝗱𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗜 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗸𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝘂𝗽 𝗮𝗻𝘆𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲."

That's what I whispered to myself, sitting at my desk after maternity leave.

We recently celebrated the 13th birthday of our son in a long weekend in London. He is a teenager officially 🤪

Back then, he was a tiny baby, and I was a mess.

Before having him, I was the yes-woman at work. Energy trading, big responsibility, hitting every target.

After? Everything felt different.

My focus was split. My confidence was gone. Even positive feedback only helped for about five minutes before the doubts crept back in.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝘂𝗻𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲.

A colleague shared her own struggles with working motherhood. Just one honest conversation.

That opened the door to finding other working moms, joining like minded groups, and finally realizing: I wasn't broken. I was just learning a new way to be excellent.

𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲'𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜 𝘄𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗜 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗺𝘆 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳:

↳ Be kinder to yourself (still working on this 13 years later 😊)
↳ Motherhood made you stronger, not weaker
↳ Balance isn't perfection - it's what works for your family

The imposter syndrome didn't disappear. But it went from a loud scream to a quiet whisper.

Looking at my teenager now, I see that scared new mom was doing better than she thought.

What's one thing you'd tell someone going through this now?

#change #workingmom #youarenotalone