The EMPRESS' NEW CLOTHES
The emperor was a vain man that took advice from swindlers to make him look grander than he was. His Ego and vanity blinded him and he could never see himself as the person he really is, allowing others to take advantage of him. The empress’s new clothes are different as the empress writes her own story resolves her own biases and challenges herself too be reflective. She is in control of her environment, her thinking styles and not just a participant.
What if we wrote a new story called the ‘empress’s new clothes’. How would that story go?
Would it be the story similar to the emperor or would it be a story not of vanity, but empowerment.
The exciting news is that this story has not been written yet. It will be your story and as you put your pen to paper you will be rewriting your narrative to bring out the empress within you!
Often we can't clearly see our selves, something holds us back or even derails us at certain times. There is a story in our subconscious that limits us. We all have it, put there by well-meaning parents, teachers our culture and friends.
Our brain creates scripts that are used as short hand to respond to certain situations, once the situation or context changes we often have scripts that no longer serve us and become error scripts. What was once useful for our survival now becomes a hindrance in finding the balance we need to excel.
Often in our own development, our brain hangs on to these error scripts, that become blockers of our own success and we begin to limit ourselves based on these scripts. This often happens subconsciously as these scripts are stored in our amygdala triggering reflexive actions. We often find ourselves after the event wondering why we behaved that way. Why on reflection did we not respond differently, that in hindsight, was a much better response to make.
To affect true change, we must first look to ourselves and make these changes to our own script as this rewrites societies scripts on Gender.
Women in Life and Leadership (W.I.L.L.) is an organisation dedicated to making a significant contribution to gender equality and balance in the working world. W.I.L.L. is grounded in the philosophy that in order to affect external change we must first be inwardly secure. As we as individuals grow in our acceptance of equality, the associated scripts dealing with inequality will change. Our internal perceptions about our own limitations stop us from moving into true gender equality.