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Wonder Woman Meets the Working World

As a working mom, I often find myself in that harmonious state of juggling. I use the word harmonious purposefully as it's become a skilled art form. On my better days, I like to mentally refer to myself as Wonder Woman of the Working World, placed on this earth to ensure that my daughter eats her broccoli and my boss's deadlines are met with a vengeance. But it wasn't always so ...

After my daughter was born, I decided to take some time off from my career to get to know this little creature that had been kicking me non-stop during the last 3 months of my pregnancy. I'll admit upfront that I was "that" overly pro-active parent who jumped at the opportunity to sign my daughter up for Mandarin language classes at the ripe age of 6 months. I was also firmly convinced that sugar and preservatives were evil incarnations placed on this earth solely to test my parenting skills. The raising of my child became my full-time career and I was determined that it would be my crowning achievement. After all, I was a career woman and if I could negotiate a multi-million dollar advertising campaign then surely I could handle this ... right? Wrong.

Each day, I struggled to maintain a self-imposed portrait of perfection. From my glistening floors that rivaled Mr. Clean commercials to my 4-course gourmet dinners co-created by Rachel Ray. My days were tightly scheduled around my endless to-do lists and my deep-seeded need for accomplishment with each dutifully checked completion mark.

What I failed to realize or even acknowledge was the joy that I getting from doing it. I didn't realize that perfection is not what made me a great career woman or even a wife or a mother. My success was not dependent on my ability to raise the next Gandhi, Einstein and Miss USA all wrapped up into one adorable size 2T. My success was in the sheer act of trying ... and every accomplishment starts with the decision to try.