What’s the biggest, BOLDEST decision you ever made in your life, mama?
Don’t even try to tell me you’ve never had to get brave and make a big decision. You have.
- You got married — or said no, or got divorced.
- You went to college — or not.
- You joined the Free Mama Movement.
- You quit the toxic job, or took the dream job, or built your business.
- You built your family.
ALL of those are big decisions that took a fair amount of courage.
What pushed you to those decisions?
You probably already know that one of the biggest and bravest decisions I ever made came from a place of deep pain and despair.
I had a miscarriage, and it led me to quit my job waaaaaayyyyyy before I was ready and start The Free Mama Movement.
But you might not know that way before that devastating loss, I made other big, bold decisions.
I moved to New York, then to Phoenix, then to Kansas City. Each move was driven by a very clear picture of what I wanted my life to look like.
Not every decision was the right one. (If you’ve read my book, you know about the New York job I quit before I even started.)
Even so, I don’t regret any of those decisions, because taking bold action helped me get to the right place.
This summer, I was somewhere in America when I got word that my aunt — who was like a second mother to me — had suffered a stroke. Within a matter of days, we learned that she wasn’t going to survive, and we immediately made our way to Kansas City, to be with my family.
Long drives have always helped me reflect on my life, and it helped that I was listening to podcasts and parenting courses and mindset trainings, and the thought that kept rattling around in my head was:
I don’t want to wait for one of my parents to die to spend time with the other one.
I’ve spent the last four years asking my parents to move to Houston. It’s not going to happen. But really, what’s keeping us from moving back to Kansas City?
It turns out… nothing.
We made this decision quickly, and I can’t tell you if it’s the best decision we’ve ever made, but I can tell you definitively that it’s the best decision we can make right now.
We’ll be with family again, designing a life that meets our needs right now.
Might we change our minds at some point in the future? We might — but that’s okay. Here’s my take:
Big and bold decisions aren’t about forever. They’re about meeting your needs in the best possible way, based on the information you currently have. Right now, acres of land, homeschooling, and being close to family and longtime friends are what we need, so we’re getting it.
No decision is un-doable. We moved to Houston five years ago, and now we’re moving back. At the time, Houston was exactly the right move for us, and I don’t regret an instant of our time here, even the terrible, hard times.
You can design your life. Your actions design your life. If you make — or avoid — decisions, your life will look different. But you’re the person who decides and designs what your life looks like.
Your turn, mama. What do you want your life to look like, and what big bold decision are you facing?