By: LUMO Leaders
Sarah here. When I was a new Mom, I called my dear friend Elizabeth with some concerns about my parenting.
“I’m just so afraid I’m going to mess her up.”
Elizabeth laughed at me kindly. “You are 100% going to mess her up,” she said. “Don’t worry about it. Do your best. Come from love.”
From an intellectual perspective, I understand that I can’t get everything right as a parent, because what is “right” anyway? I mean, who says?! But sometimes what I know and believe in my mind doesn’t make it all the way down to my heart. Subconsciously I still act like I need to do parenting right. But I know that if I can quiet my brain long enough, my heart will guide me.
This reminds me of why so many of us have stayed quiet for so long on issues of race and equity. We know what’s in our hearts, but we don’t want to speak because we are so afraid to say something wrong. We’re afraid to mess up. Elizabeth’s words ring truer now more than ever. I am going to mess it up. We are going to mess it up. And that’s okay. Because we can clean it up. We will grow from the messing up. Important conversations will come from the messing up. All the mess ups can be mended in the end, if we come from love.
I’ve been a leader in various spaces for the past 10 years of my life. In that time I’ve had tons of uncomfortable conversations with others around expectations, growth, and how we show up for one another. Have I messed up? YES. (If you read the newsletter last week, you’ll remember that I’ve messed up RECENTLY!)
Messing up a consequence of leadership. You’re on the court, instead of the sideline. It’s riskier. But again, we get to create our experience. We can put all of our energy into avoiding mistakes – or we can show up, lead, and trust ourselves to do our best. We can forgive ourselves for our mistakes, we can apologize, and we can clean up anything.
Show up. Speak up. Stay in your heart. Come from love.
That’s how powerful change happens. Are you ready to get messy? We’re here if you need help.
Maternally yours,
Sarah and the LUMO team
**If you have been following us for a while this may look familiar as we adapted it from our 6/10/20 Luscious Mother blog post.
LUMO Leaders
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