During the past decade with both my business and philanthropic work, I had the opportunity to meet phenomenal women who inspired me in many facets of my life. It is so important to choose mentors in for the critical aspects of our lives in order to learn, share and ensure that we are on the right track. As a woman, each one of us has to balance our lives between family, work and our passion. If our work aligns with our passion, we are probably the luckiest ones. But it doesn’t happen all the time. So how do we recognize our passion and embrace and nurture it to a point where we can fully dedicate our time and effort to it? This is the million-dollar question. But I strongly believe that if we listen to our inner voice (that small feeble voice that we always try to suppress due to other demanding priorities), and give some serious thought to it, our passion starts surfacing more often in our mind and we start thinking about acting on it. Some people are lucky and have the opportunity to recognize their passion early on and take gutsy steps in their lives to realize that passion.
According to me, passion is somewhat like being in love. If you are passionate about something, you feel restless until you put into action. Your perseverance and determination will be so strong that you never give up even through the toughest obstacles. You will think about it subconsciously, and you wake up in the middle of the night and start working on some new idea you want to implement. My life is an example of that. As a young graduate I never realized that I would end up doing what I do today. I love my family, I am passionate about my work, I love my philanthropic work and I want to be successful in everything I do. I know that we should not try to be a ‘superwoman’, but having realized my passion so late in life, it is too hard to let time pass me by.
How do we balance all these in our lives and yet be competitive, energetic and happy? There is so much we can learn from other women who have crossed many hurdles and challenges in their lives to become as successful as they are today. My belief is, when a woman can band together and influence the lifestyle of the family, she opens more doors to success. She can lead a community, and perhaps even the universe.
Why do we still hesitate to follow our passion and struggle to succeed as leaders? While I understand and respect the fact that we all have different phases of live where we need play the role of wife, daughter-in-law, mother and grandmother etc, I also feel proud to be a woman. ONLY women can bring this balance in work and life, and yet follow our passion.
Join us on September 24th for a panel discussion on ‘Empowering Your Passion’. You will listen from three phenomenal women that embraced their passion and have been extremely successful in their diverse fields.
Visit: www.globalwomensleague.org to get involved.
