We need to get real about having it all

Instead of asking whether we can or can’t have it all, we must focus on what we are willing to create, writes Megan Dalla-Camina.

We need to get real about having it all

Megan Dalla-Camina

Last Updated: 06 September 2019 Published: 09 August 2019

The conversation around women having it all seems to have been going on forever. We can have it all. We can’t have it all. We can have it all but not at the same time. It’s a never-ending debate that leaves us exhausted, frustrated and feeling endlessly not good enough. Are we over this conversation yet? What if we just decided to get real about it and start a different conversation?

How about this: You can have what you are willing to create. If. If you’re willing to truly define for yourself what that is. If you’re prepared to go deep and be honest about it. If you’re aware enough to realise that you actually don’t need that much to be happy. If you are willing to acknowledge that, at times, you will have to compromise and negotiate and make sacrifices (because, you know, this is life).

And if you’re willing to admit, as a somewhat privileged woman with the agency and education to read this, that you likely have more choices than you realise. Because even if you feel you can’t change your circumstances, you can always change your mindset and how you feel about them. But also, what about this: You don’t need to have it all, and even the concept of “having it all” may be just a little bit, well, greedy. Is that a radical thought?

When we see women living in third world countries who can’t feed their children, when we see mothers standing in front of tanks to stop war invasions, when we still live in a global community that refuses to feed starving children or educate girls or stop human trafficking or end religious persecution, doesn’t this conversation seem a little, well, out of touch? Misguided? Overly self-absorbed even?

It’s time to get real about it. It’s time we realise that for the vast majority of us, we have agency over our lives. That we can make empowered choices. That we can design the lives we want to live.

And this conversation about having it all only distracts us from getting clear and declaring what we truly want our lives to look like.

Next time you’re tempted to tune into the story of whether you can have it all, try this instead:

• Write down three things you are most grateful for in your life just as it is right now and practice deep and heartfelt gratitude.
• Think about the three things that matter most to you. It could be family, wellbeing, purposeful work, as examples.
• List out what an ideal week looks like for you. Get really clear here and simplify it as much as possible.
• Know that you don’t need a lot to have a fulfilled life of meaning and happiness.

Megan Dalla-Camina is an author, women’s mentor, award-winning entrepreneur and business coach. Her latest book is Simple Soulful Sacred: A Woman’s Guide to Clarity, Comfort and Coming Home to Herself.

Jerome Doraisamy

Jerome Doraisamy is a senior writer for Lawyers Weekly and Wellness Daily at Momentum Media.

Before joining the team in early 2018, Jerome is admitted as a solicitor in New South Wales and, prior to joining the team in early 2018, he worked in both commercial and governmental legal roles and has worked as a public speaker and consultant to law firms, universities and high schools across the country and internationally. He is also the author of The Wellness Doctrines self-help book series and is an adjunct lecturer at The University of Western Australia.

Jerome graduated from the University of Technology, Sydney with a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Arts in Communication (Social Inquiry).

You can email Jerome at: [email protected]