WHY “THINK LIKE A GIRL”?
For decades now, the idea of doing something “like a girl” has often been used as an insult.
The truth is, women are simply different from men. We have our own natural rhythm, our own natural pace and even our own way of viewing the world. So much of what we have been taught about the world , however, is as it is seen through a masculine lens.
Almost all of the great philosophers, leaders and teachers throughout history who have unconsciously had the greatest impact on our entire worldview are all men.
We have been taught how to live and move through the world as MEN, not as WOMEN.
There was a time when we naturally lived by our own rhythm and pace, we trusted our own instincts and could actually hear some type of “voice” deep inside of us that told us what the right thing for us to do was.
As girls, we still thought that anything was possible. As girls, we were yet unaware that we were fat, pretty, attractive or unattractive, too short, too tall, too skinny, asked too many questions or made to feel like we were basically just a burden on humanity.
We actually believed we were worthy of love simply because we existed.
Over time, however, our parents, society, religion, the media and a host of other influences taught us that we had to act, think, dress and behave in certain ways in order to be “acceptable”. We stopped wearing what we loved in order to be “fashionable.” We stopped reading what we loved in order to be more “educated” (but not too educated lest we intimidate a boy). We stopped climbing trees or playing with snails or beating boys at various pursuits because none of these things were deemed “acceptable” for a girl.
We learned very quickly that it is not acceptable to be smarter than a man, faster than a man or pretty much better at anything than a man. Many of us were even taught that it is somehow our “God-given” responsibility to please men! So many of the things we know we weren’t necessarily told out loud but the message came through loud and clear nonetheless.
We learned to become less so that men could feel like they are more.
It is time to stop.
Women have an innate and unique strength that is very different from a man’s and it isn’t something to be feared. It is time for us to find that unique strength and use it for what it was intended. When women learn to step up and lead in our areas of unique strength, we actually set men free.
It is time for us to stop worrying so much about what men think of us and instead figure out what we think of ourselves. It is time to stop trying so hard to be what men want us to be and instead figure out what we are uniquely and individually created to be. We can’t truly lead like women until we understand all the many ways in which we have actually been trained to think, act and lead like men.
Robin Thinks is about peeling back all of layers of false beliefs we have been taught about ourselves in order to reveal our true identities, the things we knew to be true of ourselves long before anyone taught us what or how to think about ourselves.
It is time to remember our own unique and individual rhythm and pace. It is time to remember what it felt like to deeply believe we are worthy of love simply because we exist.
It is time to remember what it means to think like a girl.
