Remember Your Purpose Outside of Parenting
Inspiration for this group of articles (listed below) comes from Jack Canfield’s bestseller How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be. I am taking the principles from the book and applying them to life as a parent.
During the first few months of parenting it seems like your life has been turned upside down, under the mound of nappies, soothers and pink it’s easy to lose yourself and resign to chief nappy changer/bottle washer status for evermore. There were times when I wondered who I was and what I was doing, and I am definitely the ‘maternal’ type.
Parenting can be all consuming, but, one thing I have found important is to keep my own personal purpose in mind, what do I want to achieve for myself. Erin won’t rely on me forever, it’s my job to nurture her until she can look after herself, and when that time comes I don’t want to realise that my whole life was being lived through her.
My purpose was a little hazy before I had Erin, so for me, finding my purpose (other than aspiring to be the best mum possible) was a task I had to begin from scratch. In fact, in the beginning, I didn’t even realising I was searching for my ‘purpose’ I just needed to establish where my life was going, here is a step by step of what led me to my purpose;
Blogging
I started blogging after Erin was born, I can’t remember exactly why, I probably liked the idea of keeping a diary and sharing what I was learning. It’s been instrumental in me working out what I want for myself, simply articulating ideas and thought processes every day builds a picture of who you really are (which can change somewhat dramatically after parenthood). I quickly found that I was drawn to reading and writing about education and teaching.
Reading
My reading dropped off significantly before, during and after Erin’s birth, I have begun to pick things up now and have been drawn more and more to non-fiction books that can help improve your life ie self development, financial, ‘learn how to’ books. I study the books in great detail and take the points that fit with my ethos and adapt them for my life, sort of what I’m doing in this series.
Formulating a Plan
Over the last few months I have begun to identify strengths and weaknesses which I used to make decisions, like the decision to go back to education and re-train.
Setting Goals
I sat down with my husband and we discussed what we wanted from life, we talked about all the things we want to do before we die, and finally we set ourselves goals to give us the best possible chance to succeed. The goals cover the usual categories parenting, health, finances, work & careers, recreation & hobbies etc…
I hope this article gives you the inspiration to set new goals, rediscover old ones, and makes you feel that it’s ok to have goals that don’t directly relate to your role as a parent.
I’ve already shared my goals this week, it’s your turn now 
Other Articles in the Series:
Compartmentalizing Time
I've been blogging for four years and write about anything and everything that takes my fancy.
Above is me with my beloved Ernie in Port Aventura and left with our love child in Florida.
Themocracy
I admire you for sitting down and setting something as a goal. I tend to forget to set real goals and can wander aimlessly if it wasn’t for my on-task husband. He’s my coach in so many things and goal setting is one of them.
My son today was sitting quietly next to me in the car on the way to school. He turned and out of the blue asks, “Mom, what is your dream?”
Took me by surprise. It was such a cute question and so sincere.
What did you tell him?
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