I Can Bring Home The Bacon!

I watched way too much TV growing up. Thus I have a nearly savant-like memory for countless commercial jingles. One of the most memorable was for Enjoli perfume, the 8-hour perfume for the 24-hour woman. In it, a woman sings, "I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, and never let you forget you're the man". She then goes on to sing about working till 5, reading to the kids, and then progresses into an R rating that I'm surprised made it past the censors!

The message was clear. The perfect woman is beautiful, thin, well-dressed, looks perfectly put together, successful in business, a happy chef, a loving mom, smells great, and is ready for sex.  

I share this to point to the messages women receive to be perfect in every way in every aspect of our lives (and men, I know you have your own set of messages to unpack). We were supposed to do it all and make it look easy (don't get me started on Dry Idea's Never Let Them See You Sweat ad campaign). Of course, I can look back at this now and realize how insane these messages were.

I often see the impact of these messages in my clients and friends. And now, with Instagram and Pinterest, we get new ways of seeing what a perfect house, body, face, meal, and life looks like. It's unattainable. And it's exhausting to try.

It's taken me decades to unravel the internalized messages I received and continue to receive to give up so many of the things I was expected to do.

So I ask you, what's one thing you do because you feel you "should" that you'd like to give up?