The other day, I visited a Latin-owned business in my area, a coffee shop that opened just over a year ago. I enjoyed chatting with Jimena, one of its owners, and was inspired by her upbeat attitude and refreshingly positive outlook while sharing her experience of her first year in business.
How exciting to see a young Mexican woman break out of a traditional role, to know that something more was out there beyond being a wife/mother or working in childcare. Not that there's anything wrong with those choices (I picked one myself), but my point is on choosing the more part.
The fact is—and many of us Mexican women tend to forget this—is how we can have a life different from what we grew up with or the roles we saw played out around us. While many of us struggle with huge cultural or familial expectations that simply don't resonate with our souls, we still have the abilities and opportunities to tap into the new, the exciting, and the seemingly impossible. Remain curious and explore your options.
It matters when we tell ourselves our lives can be different; that we can follow our own dreams; to be comfortable in our own skins; to not cave to traditionalism, cultural roles, and even white adjacency at the expense of our well being(!) that stifle our innate purpose to grow and thrive. A simple routine like reciting positive messaging to ourselves consistently not only changes the mindset over time, it changes the entire direction of our journeys. Just imagine where you can go! You can be independent. (Yes!) You are smart. (Without a doubt!) You can have your own business. (Absolutely!) You can have a fulfilling life. (It's your right!)
When we were kids, we didn't have any problems dreaming big for ourselves, role playing happily with our friends or in our heads like our favorite playlist. Did you forget about them because you grew up? Now is the time to dust them off. You don't have to have any answers right now; they don't even need to make sense. Just breathe life into your sparkling ideas and amaze yourself.