It’s International Women’s Day. 

And I don’t know about you, but sometimes I find it hard to keep motivated. 

We are still fighting for equity in pay, for equity of representation in board rooms, in governments, for fair legislative protections. 

The pandemic disproportionately affected us. Domestic violence kills one woman a week in Australia… and all of these things are even more pronounced if you’re not white, not heterosexual and not able bodied. 

It really is hard not to get demoralised. 

 

I don’t know exactly what the answer is to solve all these problems – but I do have one wish for all women, of any background which I think might help to speed up getting to the answer. Bear with me…

 

My fabulous friend Kate Carruthers and I have been doing a podcast for over a year now – our podcast has a very simple in premise – just interesting conversations with incredible women (usually whilst drinking wine). 

 

The overwhelming themes that have come from these chats are that women wish they could go back and tell their younger selves that they were enough, to go easier on themselves, to stop worrying about what others think and to trust their guts. 

 

Over time, these self-limiting thoughts, plus the systemic barriers we face seem push us to an epiphany. 

 

The is epiphany is this. 

Every woman we spoke to talks about the moment when they were just done with all of that, they realised they were all out of fucks left to give. 

 

If I could wish for one thing for my fellow Women this IWD – it’s that we help you get to the point of giving “Zero Fucks” way way quicker. 

 

Please do not misunderstand the Zero Fucks philosophy. It does NOT mean that you don’t care about your friends and family, that you don’t want to do important meaningful work, that you don’t want to make the world a better place. Quite the reverse. 

 

It means you will literally ignore anything or let go of anything that gets in the way of achieving those goals – especially the self-limiting worrying feelings you might have – because they do not serve you. 

They are waste of your precious time and energy. 

You can take risks and do new things – because, honestly, what is the worst that can happen?

Life is far too short, and we have got a shit load of things to change, so let’s get to it. The patriarchy isn’t going to smash itself after all. 

 

So – happy IWD to all you Badass Women out there. May you give Zero Fucks all day and every day to come.