5 Lessons to Remember on Your Journey Toward Empowerment

1. Your life is no one’s but your own.

Humans are social creatures. Our ability to live and cooperate in groups often proves our greatest strength. However, pressure from family, friends, and the society as a whole can steer us away from who we are as individuals, and what we need to feel fulfilled. Women should remember, as they face external pressures, that society's expectations of who they should be isn’t an appropriate model for everyone.

Women as individuals must have the power to decide for themselves what they want their lives to be, and how to work towards realizing those goals.

Ultimately, empowerment means nothing without the right to choose.

2. Being single does not make you a failure, and being married does not necessarily signify success.

Too often, rigid and outdated ideals of womanhood paint a troubling picture: Women who find husbands and become mothers, preferably as quickly as possible, are “successful” while women who choose an alternative path for themselves, perhaps electing instead to focus on their careers first, are “defunct” in some capacity.

Success is a word individuals define for themselves.

True success, and true self fulfillment for that matter, entail identifying one's own dreams, wishes, and desires, regardless of what they may be, and working to incorporate them meaningfully into one’s journey through life. Marriage often brings happiness and motherhood often a sense of fulfillment, but for those who aren’t satisfied by these roles alone, success takes on an entirely different, equally valid meaning.

3. There are many paths in life, each with their own challenges and rewards.

Before we can truly thrive, we must find the path that suits us best. In order to work out where we fit and what goals we should work toward, it's important to first identify one's own strengths, weaknesses, talents, interests, and passions. So long as we consider these aspects of our individuality and center them in our decision making, the inevitably divergent routes we take through life will better lead toward meaningful fulfillment.

Today more than ever, the world needs the contributions of strong, capable women.

We should aim to create a world wherein their many different gifts and talents can be fully expressed, wherein individuals are encouraged to discover for themselves what empowerment means, and how to pursue it.

4. Society’s expectations cannot determine your value

It is essential to remember that no matter how your decisions reflect in the opinions of others, external judgement can never render you or life less valuable.

Self worth is something we give ourselves.

Only through identifying one’s individual values, working to understand them meaningfully, and grounding oneself in them does it become possible to establish a foundation for a healthy self image and independent sense of personal worth.

5. Learn to forgive yourself

Self forgiveness is never easy. It requires facing the actions and decisions that make us most uncomfortable. For many, facing these realities serves as a painful reminder that we are not perfect beings, and we are bound to make mistakes as we work on becoming more fulfilled individuals.

Forgiveness is essential if we wish to learn from the past and move toward a place of acceptance and empowerment.

Unfortunately, social pressures can make this process even harder. This rings especially true in the case of women. We must remember to forgive ourselves for not embodying the expectations of others because ultimately, it is the goals we set for ourselves, not external projections, that guide us toward realizing our full potential.