Breaking the Glass Ceiling ✨

For most of my life, I didn't even know the glass ceiling existed.

I simply believed that if I loved harder, worked harder, sacrificed more, stayed quiet, and put everyone else's needs before my own, eventually I would arrive where I was meant to be. I believed that if I just kept climbing, one day everything would finally make sense.

So I climbed.

I climbed through childhood loss. I climbed through grief. I climbed through addiction. I climbed through fear, insecurity, and self doubt. I climbed while raising children, building businesses, serving others, and trying to become the woman I thought everyone else needed me to be.

From the outside, it probably looked like I was making progress. People saw the businesses, the family, the smile, and the determination. They saw someone who kept getting back up no matter how many times life knocked her down.

But inside, something kept happening.

Every time I felt like I was reaching the next level, it was as if I hit something I couldn't see. I couldn't explain it. I had the work ethic. I had the passion. I had the resilience. Yet somehow I always felt like I was bumping into an invisible barrier.

That invisible barrier wasn't just around me.

It was inside me.

The glass ceiling isn't always something another person builds for us.

Sometimes it's built one sentence at a time.

One lie at a time.

One painful experience at a time.

It begins when we're little girls and someone tells us, directly or indirectly, who we are supposed to be. Then life reinforces those messages until we stop questioning them and start believing them. Before long, those voices become our own.

Maybe no one ever actually said the words exactly like this, but somewhere along the way you began believing them.

💔 You're not enough.

💔 You're too much.

💔 You're not worthy of real love.

💔 No one will ever want you if they really know you.

💔 You'll never make it on your own.

💔 You need someone else to survive.

💔 Be grateful.

Not because your life is overflowing with blessings, but because someone wants you to stop asking for more.

Be grateful you have a roof over your head.

Be grateful someone chose you.

Be grateful you have a job.

Be grateful they stayed.

Be grateful they're helping you.

Be grateful... as if gratitude means you should stop growing, stop dreaming, stop asking questions, or stop believing you deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.

💔 You should be grateful for whatever scraps you're given.

💔 Don't rock the boat.

💔 Keep the peace, even if it costs you your own.

💔 Good women sacrifice themselves.

💔 Your needs don't matter.

💔 Your voice is too loud.

💔 You're too emotional.

💔 You're too old to start over.

💔 You're too broken to be used by God.

💔 You made too many mistakes.

💔 You'll never change.

💔 You're just an addict.

💔 You'll always be this way.

💔 Who do you think you are?

💔 If you leave, you'll fail.

💔 If you set boundaries, people won't love you.

💔 If you say no, they'll reject you.

💔 You have to earn love.

💔 You have to prove your worth.

💔 You have to keep everyone happy.

💔 Your value comes from what you do, not who you are.

Those beliefs don't just live in our minds.

They become the lens through which we see ourselves. They shape our decisions every single day. They influence the jobs we apply for, the promotions we never pursue, the businesses we never start, the relationships we stay in, the dreams we quietly bury, and the boundaries we're afraid to set. They determine how much we charge for our work, whether we ask for help, how we allow people to speak to us, and whether we believe we deserve respect, peace, love, and joy.

The saddest part is that after hearing these messages long enough, we stop needing anyone else to repeat them.

We become the voice.

We become the one saying:

"I can't."

"I'm not smart enough."

"I'm not pretty enough."

"I'm too old."

"I'm too young."

"I don't have enough education."

"I've failed too many times."

"Someone else could do it better."

"I should just stay where it's safe."

"Maybe this is all I deserve."

"Who am I to think I could do that?"

That's what makes the glass ceiling so dangerous.

Eventually, it isn't other people holding us back.

It's the lies we've unknowingly agreed with.

For me, recovery was where the cracks first began to appear. Alcohol was keeping me small. It had to go! 

Recovery taught me to tell the truth.

Therapy helped me understand where many of those beliefs came from.

Faith reminded me whose daughter I am.

Life taught me that courage isn't the absence of fear. Courage is refusing to let fear make my decisions anymore.

Today, when one of those old voices whispers, "You're not enough," I answer it with truth.

I am enough because my worth was never determined by another person's opinion. It was given to me by my Creator long before anyone had the opportunity to question it.

When the voice says, "You can't do this alone," I remember every mountain the Creator has already carried me over.

When it says, "You're too broken," I remember that some of the strongest women I know are the ones whose broken places became the very places the Creator used to heal others.

When it says, "Be grateful and stop asking for more," I remind myself that gratitude and growth are not enemies.

I can be deeply grateful for everything the Creator has given me while still believing He has called me to grow.

I can appreciate where I am without believing this is where I'm meant to stay.

Gratitude should never become permission for someone else to keep me beneath my potential.

The Creator didn't create us merely to settle.

He created us to flourish.

Today, I still climb.

The difference is I'm no longer climbing to earn my worth.

I'm climbing because I finally recognize that my worth has always been there.

And here's what I've learned.

When one woman finds the courage to break through her own glass ceiling, something powerful happens.

She gives silent permission to another woman to do the same.

Maybe that woman is a daughter watching her mother choose herself.

Maybe she's a woman in recovery wondering if she can rebuild her life.

Maybe she's an entrepreneur who's been told she's asking for too much.

Maybe she's sitting in a church believing God could never use someone with her past.

Maybe she's reading these very words.

My purpose today isn't simply to keep climbing.

My purpose is to leave cracks in every invisible ceiling that once held me back so the women coming behind me won't have to fight the same battles alone.

If my story helps one woman believe she is enough...

If it gives one woman the courage to set a boundary...

If it reminds one woman that she doesn't have to earn her worth...

If it inspires one woman to heal instead of hide...

Then every painful chapter of my life has become part of someone else's hope.

The glass ceiling begins with a lie.

It breaks with the truth.

And sometimes the most courageous thing a woman will ever do is replace one old belief with one new truth.

Maybe the glass ceiling was never meant to stop us forever.

✨ Maybe it was meant to be shattered.

🌸 Michelle Ann

SheChoseHerself2012
TheHealingCheff.com

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