There is so many ways you slay at life, but how are you slaying in your career? Let’s not make assumptions but instead lets clock how other women role model their dedication to pursuing their professional careers’.
People hear career woman and think job, more specifically office job, whereas in today's society a career woman by very definition could be in any or many industries.
[Photo Link: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/379390]
Take Robyn Rihanna Fenty, she is a Barbadian singer, actress, fashion designer, and businesswoman. This career women is multi faceted and when you think of her you don’t think job you think empire. Why, because she has many strands to her portfolio that span more than one industry and of course she’s the world's most wealthiest female musician in the world. According to Forbes, Rihanna is now worth $1.7 billion. Are you wanting to be a billionaire or at the top of your career?
By tapping into specific traits that many famous black women portray we too can slay in our chosen careers. Firstly are we oozing positivity? Positivity is the practice of being positive with an optimistic attitude. Now we can all look on the bright side of life, but this means so much more, note the word practice it means to be habitual. Not just being positive but having a deep belief for what that means to you and your career.
Lets take Serena Williams, she has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles, the most by any player in the Open Era, she doesn’t start her day hoping she’s the best she believes she is the best. Serena holds a level of assertiveness that not just shows she knows who she is, she breathes a confidence that is forceful in nature.
Despite Serena’s dominance in her field women at her level are also considered high maintenance and low in femininity. Why does being powerful have to equal masculinity? Serena on many occasions has had to combat how the media and those with influence portray her body type. In fact since having her daughter she has produced many photos that make her the object of femininity. Even at her level and her knowing of self she is still under pressure either personally or by her industry to soften her appearance.
This leads me nicely into resilience. This is a desirable characteristic for living life in general but as a career woman to have the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties is a necessity. As black women we all face micro and for some of us macro aggressions, in our chosen careers. Yes I said it, huge ongoing attempts to throw you off of your A-game, to reduce your toughness to tears and not all of these attacks will come from outside of your gender or even your race! So knowing how to address them with grace and demure will strengthen further your level of resilience.
Women like Gabriella Union and Mo’Nique have had to demonstrate huge amounts of public resilience for their authenticity to be understood by the wider community. The struggles they have faced and had to overcome to uphold their quality of being genuine, at times has seemed insurmountable. Let’s be real ladies, do not let money fool you , being a career woman comes with its own sacrifices, and like with most things a black woman has to face, not all of those sacrifices will be within your power to control.
This is why it is paramount that we all make Self-Care a priority in our lives. This practice of taking all necessary action to preserve or improve our own physical, psychological, emotional, financial and mental health is non negotiable.
For some of us being a career woman means we will be having a family later in life or not at all. For others, it’s minimal sistahood. We are under represented across all industries at a top level and so your closest interactions maybe with people who don’t look like you, don’t eat what you truly enjoy eating and wouldn’t enjoy the place’s, people or things you truly would like to do. This is why it is doubly important that when we see another sista on our level or reaching out to us as they are climbing up the ladder we don’t nash our teeth, draw our sword or pull out our clipboard of judgment. Instead we can be reminded, that it’s lonely being the only.
Being in a position of having plenty and no time to enjoy it or having no one to enjoy it with can also be a consequence of being career driven. NLP thought processes will help you to understand and appreciate that these pressures and challenges needn’t be negatives, in fact for many of those high flyers who are in positions of power and are emotionally intelligent, decision making is part and parcel of their DNA.
So yes being a career woman requires a daily focus that is propelled by goal setting, achievement and upscaling regularly but it’s also rewarding for the soul, if this is your purpose. Ladies don’t say no or yes to this concept say a definite yes to your purpose. I am sure by being purpose driven you will be winning at every level of your chosen career.