Ep. 36: Ana Homayoun Teaches Girls How to Find Authentic Happiness
"The fact of the matter is that we have to figure out what we want to filter in and what we want to allow in, and then allow ourselves the space to figure out 'what's really important to us? Am I spending my time in a way that moves towards those goals? Or am I doing things that are self-sabotaging those goals?'"
Ana Homayoun is a teen and millennial expert who recently celebrated the 15th anniversary of her company, Green Ivy Education Consulting. She is the author of The Myth of the Perfect Girl, a guide to helping girls find authentic happiness and success in life. Ana was inspired to write the book when high-achieving girls could not tell her what made them happy or joyful. Listen for Ana's wise teachings, which are needed not only by girls but also by women of all ages.
"Figuring out what's really important to you and how you can be of service and how you can have a sense of purpose in the world as a core identity is really important because that's like a seal. Other people can offer their opinions and offer their insight and be helpful, but there's not a situation where if someone doesn't like you or doesn't like what you're doing that you then start to devalue yourself."
We talk about why she wrote The Myth of the Perfect Girl, the dangerous achievement culture that currently exists for women and girls, designing your own blueprint rather than borrowing someone else, how girls often shortchange their abilities versus boys who don't usually question themselves that way, how we sell ourselves short by not taking healthy risks, breaking the glass ceiling with entrepreneurship, focusing on buoyancy not just resiliency, why it's so important to find your joy and how you can do that, how much more effective we are when we focus on one thing at a time, making your career and life a marathon rather than a sprint, and creating our own definitions of success.
"It's a combination of things. We have to be purposeful but also meaningful and at the same time, realistic, understanding that even if your dream scenario isn't going to happen right away there are always things you can do to work towards whatever goals you have."
What you'll learn:
Ana is a teen and millennial expert.
She is the founder of Green Ivy Education Consulting which has just celebrated it’s 15th anniversary.
Ana has written several books including “The Myth of the Perfect Girl”.
Ana was meeting so many young girls who had good grades but couldn’t say what they did for fun.
This was followed by women dropping out of the workforce because they never found what they wanted to do.
Ana encourages her readers to find their personal goals which can be an uncomfortable task.
Ana wants to ask teens these questions as early as possible, so they have time to figure it out.
Women start killing it in business when they’re following their passion.
Women need to find their passion that they can keep at their core, so that when they are criticized they won’t try to improve to please other people because they are following their passion.
After her company’s 15th anniversary Ana went back to talk to her first clients and found they were all doing things based on their passions in high school.
Entrepreneurship is the best way to break the glass ceiling for girls because they can create a career on their own terms.
Finding what brings you joy might take a bit of trial and error, and you have to be willing to give some things up to make time in your life.
Corporate working is often in a male environment and so masculine traits are rewarded.
The book helps people design their own blueprint, rather than borrowing someone else’s.
Ana has a new book out in 2017 called “Helping tweens and teens thrive in an unbalances digital world”.
Advice:
Understand that some things have nothing to do with you.
Find your Oasis points which are daily/weekly/monthly times to recharge so that you don’t get burned out, life is a marathon not a sprint.
Find apps to stop wasting time on your phone - e.g. the forest app which helps with blocking out distractions.
Look at how you’re spending your time; are you doing energizing or draining tasks? If a task doesn’t bring you joy then try to reframe it.
You’re more effective when you do one task at a time.
If you think you don’t have time, try the Moments app which tracks your time and might help you find that spare 30 minutes.
Find time, even 5 minutes in day to do something that brings you joy.
Learn more:
- www.anahomayoun.com