Page 15 - Free Yourself From

xiv We Have Come a Long Way, But Is It Good Enough?

get to that last executive-level rung without changing their lifestyle or
burning out. Some look at the women above them and believe they
must be frazzled and unhappy given all they have on their plates—
though, in most cases, they are actually content and satisfied. And still
others assume they aren’t valued or accepted by the inner circle of male
leaders at their company, even while these women fail to reach out to
these colleagues for support. Finally, others don’t believe it’s possible to
achieve a healthy work-life balance in the highest-level jobs.
All of these things can be boiled down to two key things: false
assumptions and lack of information. As you read this book, I’ll help
you to take a good look at those assumptions and provide you with
lots of new information! Take a few moments and invest in “you.”
Take this opportunity to look within yourself and see where you might
be holding yourself back from achieving your fullest potential—which
might just be the executive suite. You might find, as I did, that many
of your assumptions are illusions and if you don’t step out of your
comfort zone now to challenge your old, self-limiting points of view
and behaviors, you may be your own greatest obstacle to reaching
fulfillment. Know that you do have more control of your destiny than
you sometimes think you do!

What’s a Woman to Do if She Wants to Rise Off the

Sticky Floor and Prosper in Her Career?

Yes, I know perfectly well that women are forced to haul more than
their fair share of societal or cultural weight up the career ladder. But,
the upside is richer experiences, deeper knowledge, and stronger
empathies that they can draw on to solve problems, strategize, and
inspire people—if they learn to make use of that advantage rather
than seeing it as a hindrance.
You do this by looking inward, as I mentioned earlier. The trick
to getting unstuck is realizing you are stuck and then formulating a