I have been with the company I currently work for for over eight years. Seven years ago I became a mother. It was an absolute dream child and I love being a mother. I have a senior position (non-managerial) and wanted to pursue my career part-time when I returned. I kept coming up with new suggestions on how I could fill a leadership role, but my bosses refused. They were always very happy with my performance, but when it came to my desire to take on more responsibility, they always said, ” You can’t do that part-time.” I didn’t want to accept that for five years.

I also applied for other jobs where I wanted to fill a responsible position part-time. And although I usually got very far in the application process, I was never taken on at the end, with the statement: “We need someone full-time for that. I felt trapped: I couldn’t do anything about my situation – I wasn’t getting ahead in my job, and I couldn’t get out of it into another one. I tried very hard all the time to show my bosses what they would get out of me if they gave me a leadership position. But they stuck to their conviction (which the majority of the business community in Germany shares with them, that is a fact and a systematic disadvantage). At the end I exhausted myself on this desire and the hopelessness of my situation.

Now I am well again and I am looking for new ways to live my dream. I am currently working on the Impossible Goal and Believing New Things. I ask myself: When do you have to accept things simply because society doesn’t want them, or isn’t ready yet? When are the wishes too big, because they are not exclusively in my hands, but for the most part in the hands of others? I want to be there for my child (including at least 4 hours every day after school) and I want to live my dreams, to realize myself professionally. But I don’t want to burn out on this desire again. What do I have to accept? And what can I believe and realize with massive action?