Because both my mother and grandmother were single mothers, I was fooled into believing the myth of the superwoman. When also faced with the prospect of being a single mother, I was more than confident that I could take up the reins. But what my mother didn't tell me and I think a lot of mothers forget, neglect, or just don’t think to tell their children is that there is no such thing as a superwoman. No one can or should go through life doing everything for everyone.
So, as an ex-victim of the superwoman syndrome I was really excited to read Overcoming the Superwoman Syndrome. This is not your average self help book written by one person dishing out no nonsense advice. It is actually a book written by more than 25 women and each author is given their own short chapter and topic to discuss. There are also little worksheets within most of the chapters to help the reader apply the chapter's life lessons. Most, no, all of these women’s résumé’s were intimidating making me feel as if I haven't done nearly in enough in my 29 years of life.
One of my favorite chapters was "Turning Dreams into Reality." Terri Tubbs tells us dreams are precious, personal, powerful, and should be protected. She then offered a few suggestions to help turn dreams into reality 1. Visualization-how will you know that you achieved your dream? What will success look like? 2. Visualizing-Write your vision and keep it in plain sight. 3. Planning-good planning includes goals and objectives that are specific, measurable, attainable, reasonable, and time based. And skipping a few 10. Pray often-We have to know that we are not alone and when life's struggles are too much we can ask and receive divine help. I'm also going to pick out "Taking Personal Inventory of Success and Joys".
Pamela Burks, the author, is a brilliant writer. As I was reading, I felt like I was being cheered on by a likable cheerleader. Burks suggests that we capture golden moments of success by keeping a journal that outlines your "pat on the back" or "things that made you smile or laugh" that day. Burks hit home on a lot of issues that both women and men have to deal with on a regular basis. I am definitely going to start giving myself pats on the back.
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