Hi, I’m Arivee!

As a big law lawyer years ago, I experienced the typical challenges of a demanding high-pressure environment.  I loved the rigor and brilliant minds I worked with, but I always had a little voice asking me:

Is this what you really want?  Is this who you are?

Then I had my son and that voice got louder.   

Because work was my life and my source of validation, value and worth, I felt I had lost a part of my identity when I was on maternity leave. I was struggling and I had the baby blues. I know I’m so privileged to have had maternity leave and time with my son, and I felt down.  I realized that for years, I had equated my work performance with my value as a person, and that was no longer serving me.  

I started listening to personal development podcasts, read Return to Love by Marianne Williamson, read Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown, and got a life coach.

I took time to get clear on who I was and who I wasn’t.  I got clearer and clearer on what I wanted, rather than what was expected of me.  What made me feel alive and what didn’t. Whose opinion mattered and whose didn’t.  Whether you’re first generation (like me) or not, you know these can be the toughest conversations you have with yourself.

I worked on being brutally honest with myself about my needs, my wants, my values and priorities, and on being open and willing to make the changes to generate more self-acceptance and self-love, and to make the changes I needed to have more alignment and joy in my life.

Let’s stop letting guilt, fear, or self-doubt get in the way.

We have the power to make decisions that move us towards what we actually need and want, and aligns with what we need in this chapter of life and career.  You get to decide how to level up.  Change can be challenging because much of change is rooted in unlearning things that are no longer helpful to you.

But if you let go of needing to be comfortable, the journey to the truest and most powerful version of you is waiting for you on the other side.