M E Clarke Consulting reflects on what it means to change 

I have been a thousand different women. 

The achiever. The rescuer. The exhausted one. The hyper-capable one. The woman who could hold everything together. The woman who finally admitted she couldn’t. 

The one who performed certainty. The one who disappeared into responsibility. The one who learned how to lead. The one now learning how to become more fully herself. 

And somehow, I am none of them, and I am all of them. All at once. 

Lately, I’ve been thinking about personal growth and change. About how we are constantly evolving inside our bodies, minds, spirits, relationships and work. Beliefs unravel. Identities shift. Grief shapes us. Joy reshapes us. Life forms us, one brutally beautiful experience at a time. 

And yet, we often expect ourselves and each other to stay the same. 

At home. At work. In leadership. In friendship. 

We say we value growth, but growth is disruptive. Real becoming rearranges dynamics. It asks more truth from us. Often, it requires disappointing people who benefited from older versions of us. 

Maybe maturity is not about becoming some final, fully realized version of ourselves. Maybe maturity is building the capacity to stay in relationship with our own emergence, and to let others keep changing too. 

To grieve who we have been without resisting who we are becoming. 

I have been a thousand different women. 

I hope I get to be a thousand more. 

Read the full reflection on the M E Clarke Consulting blog. 

Inside Leadership is a monthly column by ME Clarke Consulting for Cincy Magazine, where industry professionals reflect on the habits, mindsets and experiences that shape effective leadership. Read past versions of the column on Cincy Magazine’s website.