Making Room in the Circle
Everyone knows the feeling of being left out, being isolated, or like they don’t belong. But today, women need to include each other more than ever. If we don’t encourage women to join us wherever we are, we are creating even more barriers for ourselves and others. This doesn’t mean we all have to get along well or be best friends, but that we can support each other and make room at the top.
Alison Faulkner, a Utah-based entrepreneur, discovered that she had a gift for helping other women discover how awesome they are. She says it’s vital that women include everyone, but that we’re also smart about how we spend our time. Alison says “make sure to invest in people who invest in you.” While it may seem like a simple concept, we can be kind without being close friends with everyone. We can even be friends with people we disagree with.
Author and female advocate Glennon Doyle describes inclusion as being more about opening up our “horseshoes” instead of our “circles, ”because if we always stay open, more women will be willing to join us.
If each woman thought about how to open up to just one more woman, the world would be a better place. There is no finite amount of success available to women, and the sooner we start believing that, the better off we’ll be.