Choose "and" over "or"

Do you remember multiple choice tests?

Multiple choice questions are great when testing what you have learned formally, or analyzing what type of handbag is best for your zodiac sign or what spirit animal you are, but when it comes to determining your potential in life, realize that you can have multiple answers and all of them can be right. You can have "and's."

Because you have been told that you have to have to “pick one” in some areas of life, you may think that you can only “be one thing." You are used to thinking in "or's."

The truth is there isn’t one right answer, or wrong one.

There isn't one good move, or bad one.

Or's limit what you think is possible for you. And's expand what is possible for you. You have multiple answers to choose from- you don't have to pick just one.

You can be a wonderful mom who is a full-time marketing director, travels, and has a side hustle and takes tap dance lessons and lets her kids play video games.

You can be a dedicated pet parent, and a sales vice president, and an avid runner, and a poet.

You can add any "and" you want.

It is easy to think that you need to fit in one box or another, but that keeps you playing small (and potentially feeling bored).

We are socialized (specifically as women), to be one answer: The soccer mom or the ambitious employee. The funny lady or the sophisticated leader. Or worse, we are supposed to be a little of this and not too much of that…

• A little assertive, but not too direct
• Caring, but not too passionate
• Goal-oriented, but not too ambitious

You can be all of those things and none of those things and more than those things. You can be too much, and too little and just enough. What’s most important is that you are your own darn thing, and that you are embracing your and's.

True, you may only be able to do one thing at a time, and you can always build. Build new knowledge. Build new relationships. Build new hobbies. You’re complex and beautiful.Thinking you must fit into any box is a lie to keep you basic. And you didn’t come here to be basic. So choose your and; ditch your or. You have multiple answers and choices.