A few days ago, I was on a coaching call with a student. She was flustered and stressed and clearly unhappy. She had a lot of potential work coming her way, but much of it wasn’t the work she wanted to do.

Saying yes to every client felt like the responsible thing to do, but it was making her miserable, and it was keeping her from moving forward in her business the way she wanted to.

She wanted to turn down the clients who weren’t a good fit, but she felt like she needed permission for that.

Another mama I talked to was on the flip side. She desperately wanted to pursue a project she knew she could do — but she’d never done that type of work before. So she felt like she wasn’t allowed to go after it. She needed permission to pitch the client.

I told both of these incredible women two things:

1. They didn’t need permission — from me or from anyone else — to do or not do the things that they wanted.
2. Even though they didn’t need permission, I gave them permission. 

In both cases, the relief was instant. A few tears may have been shed — which is totally normal, and absolutely part of the process.

So, right now, Mama, I want you to know that I am officially signing your permission slip, too. Give yourself permission to live a big life.

You have permission. You have permission to say no to the work you don’t want to do, to the class mom position you don’t want to take, to the cooking or cleaning you’d rather outsource. You have permission to say no without guilt. 

You have permission to go after the work you want, even if you’ve never done it before. Even if you don’t have tangible proof you can do it. 

And let’s be clear — it’s not that I’m giving you permission. It’s YOUR OWN permission to make the decisions you need to make.

The amazing Kathryn Jones was recently talking about being the CEO of your life and your business. You ARE the boss of your business and your life, and you can choose to show up as that version of yourself — or you can choose to be scared, and to wait for permission to do the things you want to do. 

The thing is, the only person who can truly give you that permission… 

… is you. 

So sign that permission slip, Mama, and show up as the best version of yourself. Give yourself permission to live a big life.

P.S. I was actually just on a podcast talking about permission and how we need to give it to ourselves. Check it out here!