CircleUp! It’s Not Selfish
In what might be called a selfish act, a group of nine women have been scheduling a full 2.5 hours each month to come together to work solely on themselves. Gasp! Yes, 2.5 hours of uninterrupted time during the late afternoon (3:30-6:00) -- time which is typically reserved for real, paying work. We don’t call it selfish, we call it an investment not only in our well-being, but in the lives of each other; our families, friends, co-workers and our communities.
It took some warming up to. The group, Real Moms' Club (RMC), is not for networking, although that is a supremely nice by-product. It’s not topic-driven discussion -- not at least in the way Jess and I (group co-founders) initially envisioned. It’s not business learning 101 or how to market ourselves. To me, it’s refreshing in that it’s time devoted specifically to self improvement and working with all of the other women to better themselves. We work together to bring out creativity, dreams and our inner spirits, which can sometimes be difficult to uncover after years in service to others partners, children, careers and our community.
By following the format outlined in the book, Women Connected, we are building trust with each other, being vulnerable and open, uncovering our passions and buried interest to foster those, make correlations and be intentional about our lives. From topics like Calling on Purpose to Future Perfect, we’re discovering. We’re actually in the process of crafting our very own vision statements.
With momentum building and our own self-discovery budding, the RMC is hosting an event called CircleUP! to share this process with other women who are open and seeking self-discovery. The intention of the Thursday, October 8th evening, lead by an inspirational artist, is for women to learn more about the upside of this process (see my musings from the group's onset: Real or RHONY), meet others who may want to start their own group or simply enjoy a evening of positivity. The evening is open to 55 women and registration is available here: RSVP.
When our group of nine formed, most of us did not know each other. Jess and I had the good fortune of meeting early on, before the creation of RMC, with Linda. Linda has been a key collaborator throughout the process. We invited women in who we weren’t necessarily close to, but had connected with in some way and we knew we wanted to get to know them more. I say this because in similar fashion, the evening of the 8th may reflect this. Most women might attend only knowing one other woman – the woman who extended the invite. And that’s okay. In fact, it’s welcome.During the evening of the 8th, Colette and Jodi, our hosts and owners of mARTini, will lead us in Circling Up at Joule, a co-working space in Northeast Minneapolis. There will be food, beverage, icebreakers and art. You’ll bring home your CircleUp painting and hopefully some inspiration about the power of self-discovery.
You’ll also get a little sampling of how our monthly sessions are run and find out the purpose of a Go-To-Girl. To give you a flavor for RMC and to knock out some of the light homework due by next session late October, I’ll start by answering three of the six questions posed to us:
What has been the best thing for you about being in the group? Taking a journey all of the way back to childhood to figure out happy points and what I was doing or how I was engaged and living at that time and now feeling supported and understood enough to re-engage and find those highpoints.
What has been the most nurturing and supportive thing about being in the group? Being surrounded by a diverse group of women with the commonality of improving ourselves, many times achieved by being vulnerable enough to share our challenges.
What in your life has been affected as a consequence of your participation in the group?Stating my commitments for each month and taking action to check them off – RMC holds me accountable. Most significantly, I’m allowing myself to aspire and dream more and even have the tools to work backwards to create that reality.
Please share, invite, ask more questions. Here’s to Circling Up and bringing other women along for the journey!