If you encounter a strong woman, you’ll pick up on it almost immediately. There’s a sort of vibe that she’ll put off that tells you she’s strong, confident, and self assured.
But how did she get like that?
It probably varies from strong woman to strong woman, but there’s a good chance her journey toward being a strong woman began the day she decided to stop wearing the weight of others’ expectations.
Women are bombarded by social and cultural influences that want them to be a certain way, live a certain way, work a certain way, and live a certain way. Women have completely unrealistic expectations thrown at them. The goalposts are moved for women.
But a strong woman doesn’t wear the weight of others’ expectations.
And that’s not all.
Strong women stand their ground.
Being a strong woman doesn’t mean that you’re an aggressive woman. That’s a male way of thinking about strength. Strength isn’t about what you can bench – it’s about picking your words wisely, meaning what you say, following your words with action, and standing your ground.
A strong woman who stands her ground isn’t positioning herself as an aggressive person. She’s not being a bully. She’s not being standoffish. She’s simply carving out her space in the world and not letting anyone take it away from her. She has fought for and won what is hers and she’s not going to back down.
Strong women own their mistakes.
People who don’t take ownership and responsibility for their mistakes are probably trying to put on a tough front to seem strong, but there is nothing ‘strong’ about a person who tries to pass off blame or play dumb when they’ve made a mistake. Once caught in that lie, you actually look quite weak.
Strong women don’t blame anyone but themselves when a mistake has been made. She doesn’t need anyone to cover for her and make her problems go away. She’s standing on her own two feet and has no issue with raising her hand and taking the blame when something goes wrong.
Mistakes happen and we can learn from them. Strong women realize that if you don’t learn from your mistakes, you’ll never improve.
Strong women always challenge themselves.
You don’t wake up one day and realize, ‘Ah, I’m a strong woman. I can rest now.’ Being a strong woman means always changing, learning, and challenging yourself to be better in new and exciting ways. Strong women are always shooting for the moon. Sometimes when you shoot for the moon, you wind up wasting a bullet, but even in failure, a strong woman sees success.
Strong women lift up those around her.
Being a strong woman isn’t about being queen of the hill, standing tall and lording over everyone else. Strong women realize that everyone does better when everyone does better. She will lift up those around her who need it the most. But if you’ve crossed her and made it known you have poor intentions, you’ll get nothing from her.
But strong women are charitable, kind, enduring, and fair. If you need help and you’ve come to a strong woman in good faith, you can expect a helping hand.
Strong women keep an open mind.
One of the most important features of a strong woman is that she keeps an open mind and doesn’t close herself off to new things and different ways of living. Strong women know they don’t get ahead by putting others down, so they don’t bother to judge people unfairly. A strong woman knows how to stay in her lane and respect the choices of others.
Strong women also know that keeping an open mind is the only way to expand your mind, and an expanded mind is a strong mind.
Strong women do a lot of things differently, and most of it stems from the fact that she’s not going to put up with nonsense and she’s not going to wear the weight of expectations.