Toughen Up Buttercup!

By Heather Legge  

While chatting with another woman owner, up came the topic of how most of us achiever-type women (and some men) have a kind of conditioning of "Never Show Weakness".  More than the "never let them see you sweat" concept, it seems to have been adopted not only in business, but 24x7 in every area of life and relationships too, so that the perception is we are simply not allowing ourselves to fail at anything, and to not talk about it either.  

It's not all sunshine and rainbows living this way!  It's too much pressure to keep up a facade of toughness, plus we know what happens over time: in addition to the occasional embarrassing meltdown, we have poor health, severed relationships, end-of-life regrets, and a whole lot of other crap to look forward to.  All of which we might be able to avoid by dialing it down a notch.  It took me about 35 years to figure this out.