The Role of The Inner Girl and a Successful Career

Let’s start off by introducing the inner child. The Inner Child is the first archetype that you’ll inhabit, and the influence of the Inner Child continues long into adulthood. For example, if you were the older sister that looked after your siblings, your adult archetype might be one of the more nurturing, such as the mother.

There are 7 inner child types to introduce you to:

The caretaker: A self-sacrificing type
The overachieve: Ms Ambitious
The underachiever: Stuck in their comfort zone
The protector: A rescuer, always helping
The life of the party: Happy go lucky, miss positive
The yes person: The people pleaser
The hero-worshipper: Seek acceptance from someone they have put on a pedestal

Overall, these initial summaries don’t feel very positive, and we often hear a lot about healing our Inner Child and doing Inner Child work. While that is true, for example, the underachiever would benefit from working on their fear of failure and rejection. Even the life of the party would benefit from being able to be vulnerable with their real emotions instead of the constantly happy façade. But it isn’t all about the shadow side of the Inner Child and healing her, instead, it’s about letting some of those attributes shine through in your adulthood.

We need to remind ourselves that we don’t need to be devoted to our work, and in the process deny ourselves joy and fun. There’s a very real benefit to embracing your Inner Girl to your career and overall well-being.

Remember when you were a young child? Very young in fact. Your imagination was crazy, literally, no dream was too big, and you didn’t care what anyone thought. The world, and beyond, was yours. I wonder if anyone can pinpoint when they lost that ability, perhaps some haven’t
This creativity and this ability to think big, so powerful for your business or your career. The thinking big drives you to succeed, it drives you to expand, to progress and to hit goals, and the creativity puts your own personal flair on it.
The thoughts of the Inner Girl, those big bold thoughts are the key to your success.

In a similar fashion, have some fun. This doesn’t mean go on a night out and drink, or go to a spa, or to a restaurant. Have some child friendly, wholesome fun, go to the arcades, to the fair, or to the zoo and just run about having fun. Remember the thrill of the 2p machines? The sound as more clattered down, the smell of your hands and the noise of the machines? There is so much fun and joy there. Taking yourself back to these experiences and just having fun is incredible for your well-being, and it reminds us to not be so serious all the time. Not only that, but it releases stress and free’s up space in your mind, meaning you’ll be more productive and ready to work.

Next, we need to remember how resilient our Inner Girl is. A child hurts themselves and 2 minutes later they are back running around, or they finish a tantrum and are in fits of laughter in the next second. It’s a good reminder to not let one moment take over our entire day, they just shake it off. They also, nearly always find a way to do what they want. If you put something they want out of reach, they will climb, build a step, or enlist siblings to help, they find a way around the problem. Again, our Inner Girl is demonstrating to us that there is always another way, so next time you hit a block at work, find the other way.

If you feel like your Inner Girl is long gone, your wrong, she is still in there. You need to nurture your connection to her, let her speak to you and in turn, listen, take the guidance.

If you feel like you have reached a point in your career where you’re not sure what it is you want anymore, if you can make progress or if you’re not enjoying you work, then I suggest spending some time nurturing your Inner Girl. Delving into your Inner Girl, having fun, letting her thoughts flow and re-connecting with those big ideas and dreams will help guide you through your next step and lead you to career success.