- thewomensnetwork
Resolutions
Everyone has New Year’s Resolutions. From eating healthier to exercising more, everyone has some sort of internal goals or habits they want to improve upon in the year. Many people see the start of a new year as a chance to hit the “restart” button, a chance to do better than the year before. However, rather than thinking about my resolutions as year-long goals that I just have to keep for 365 days, I try to think of them as a daily way of life that I try to live by. Some days are better than others. Some days I stick to my “resolutions” and others I don’t. I’d like to think that at the end of the year I can look at the overall progress I have made, rather than just how long I kept my resolution.
My main personal “resolutions” for 2019 and beyond are to be more confident in myself and to continue to step out of my comfort zone and explore new things. So far, being in college has expanded my horizons farther than I could have ever expected. I have met new friends, tried new food, taken new and unique classes, and traveled to new places. I can only hope to keep up this momentum in 2019 and continue to live everyday learning, trying new things and not letting my fears hold me back. Slowly but surely, I am learning to take advantage of all the opportunities around me, stepping out of my comfort zone to do so. That is always my biggest piece of advice to those around me: take advantage of the opportunities around you even if they are out of your comfort zone or wheelhouse. They can help you to learn and grow in an area that you may have never experienced before. We all have to start somewhere and who knows, maybe one of these opportunities will lead you to find your passion!
Part of stepping out of my comfort zone is having the confidence to do so and to trust in my skills and abilities. As women, we naturally tend to underestimate ourselves, our skills and our abilities. This idea of the "imposter syndrome” that women tend to naturally have is explained by Jack Zenger of Forbes in his article “The Confidence Gap in Men and Women: Why It Matters And How To Overcome It”, which I have linked at the bottom. I and many other women can highly relate to this. When it comes to applying for leadership positions, jobs, or even roles women may currently hold it is easy for our first instinct is to think “why me?”. We may wonder why we were chosen for a certain internship or if we are qualified enough for the job. By turning to friends and family for support we can slowly find our worth and affirmation in our skills and abilities and value that we as women add to the world around us. As our slogan goes “empowered women, empower women”. By empowering ourselves and others around us we can help do our part in overcoming this confidence gap.
This also ties into the resolution I have for our organization, The Women’s Network. My resolution for the organization is to help us grow our membership and reach and empower more women. I know as a freshman I was striving to find where I fit in, to find a group of women who inspire me and empower me to change the world and do great things. For me, The Women’s Network does just that and more. We are a diverse group of women with different backgrounds, interests, majors, goals, and passions. By connecting and empowering each other we strive to not just inform women on the world and resources around them, but also to empower them to follow their passions and make a difference. By increasing our membership in numbers, we bring in more diverse women who uniquely contribute to the group and our goals.
These “resolutions”, goals, whatever term you prefer, help to guide us in a direction for not just the following year but also the long-term future. We are far from perfect and there will be days when we don’t always stick to our goals. Days when we don’t take that one opportunity or don’t fully realize our potential, and that’s okay. Realizing we are not perfect is part of the process of becoming confident in ourselves, in our skills and abilities to empower those around us.
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Jordan Gloyeske is from Greenwood, IN and is a sophomore at Indiana University. She is majoring in Finance, Accounting, and Business Analytics, minoring in Political Science. She is so happy to be on the executive board of The Women’s Network, serving as the Vice President of Alumnae Relations! In her time off she loves to try new foods, spend time with friends and family, and cheer on IU basketball.
