This morning as I was getting ready, as I usually do, I had Good Morning America on. I don’t really watch it, but rather listen.  A segment caught my attention when they talked about women trying to have it all.  They said, “It’s a myth.”

I’ve long thought that. While I’m all for equal rights and women having the life they deserve, I do feel many of us have gotten caught up in trying to be perfect. We bought into what the media portrays we should be. Work full time, raise kids, be the perfect wife, have the perfect body, volunteer, and the list goes on and on. Isn’t it exhausting just reading all the pressures we have put on ourselves?

Part of my search years ago was to find my purpose but to also be happy – to find a joy that I had lost because I was trying to be so many things. Of course, I didn’t have kids, but I can only imagine how tired some women are who have that too.

The report boiled down to that yes, we can still have all these things. But we have to realize we can’t have them all at once. It makes so much sense. I also wonder what we are teaching our younger generation of women if we are trying to achieve everything all at once?  They are watching what we do. Don’t we owe it to be a role model for them that perfection is not the route to travel? When I tried to be perfect, I was miserable. I don’t wish that on anyone.

The suggestion from the report is to be happy with your choices. I like that. Now does that mean that is always easy to do?  No, but you have to really sit down and weigh it all out. For me, this is when I really tend to listen to, and follow what my heart is trying to tell me when I find myself struggling.

Eight years ago I decided to pursue my love of writing about dogs and animals, which continues to morph into more. I gave up my corporate job, a sports car, and many material things because I no longer had the paycheck to support those things.  Yes, I have a husband who is the bread winner. My choice may have been different if I didn’t have that. But I think I could have had it in a smaller way, and maybe at just a slower pace, or perhaps at a different time in my life.

Being happy with our choices is what I really think it does boil down to. Choice is something we always have. Our choice – not what others may think is right for us, but what we feel is right for us as individuals.

I chose not to have kids. Does it mean I sometimes wish I had?  Of course. But I don’t regret it. I am happy with my choice. Again, that has not always been easy for me. But it was only because I thought it was something I was supposed to do because so many women do. I bought into the picture of what success and happiness is.

Paint your own picture. Make your own choices. Live your own meaningful life. Sounds like a much better way to live than being perfect, right?  I  think I hear a collective sigh.  Pass it on.

Want a great example of making choices?  Check out this couple who quit their jobs at the age of 40 to travel the world and how it helps them in how they now live today.