The Lone Ranger was actually one of my favorite characters as a child. Single-handedly righting wrongs, doing good and riding a horse; you couldn’t get much cooler than that. I carried that image into college and adulthood. Unfortunately, as keen as I was to do it all by myself and to do it my way, those beliefs only served to make anything I attempted that much harder.
It took me decades to realize that women prefer a group approach to doing just about anything. We love cooking together, watching the kids together, doing projects together, eating together. We even go to restrooms together! It also took me decades to realize that working with group support was more fun, more creative, more powerful.
I now enjoy mastermind groups for my business, workout groups for my exercise, walking groups for my dog walks. To be sure, I spend a lot of time thinking, being and doing on my own. However, when I need a breakthrough, when I need the support that is going to carry me over the hump, when I want to celebrate my progress, I turn to another powerful woman or group of women and we all get on the horse together to ride into the sunset.
I’m not opposed to inviting men into these groups; I’ve just found that many more women than men are comfortable in that space of unconditional support, collaboration and win-win thinking. My hope is that women will make a bigger effort to create these powerful experiences for their sons so they have a chance to model a different way of interacting and experiencing community.
So where are you? Still on the horse by yourself? Think about how you can add powerful support to your endeavors, especially your business. Going it alone only serves to postpone creating the thriving business and life that you truly desire. Share your journey now; don’t wait until you reach your destination to find your community.
