Majka Burhardt On Redefining Motherhood & Inspiring Our Kids By Chasing What We Love

Seeing how we live our lives is how our kids gauge reality and ultimately create the lives they want.

 

If we make them feel like parenthood means giving up what we love, that’s what they’ll believe. If we show them that we can have things we’re passionate about, they’ll follow that example.

 

Being mothers, business owners and everything else in our lives certainly isn’t easy, and that’s okay. The more honest we are about that and the less we obsess over balance, the better the journey gets.

 

In this episode, I’m joined by professional climber, conservation entrepreneur, founder of Legado and the author of “More: Life on the Edge of Adventure and Motherhood”, Majka Burhardt. We talk about her journey, what she wants to teach her kids and the power of deconstructing and reinventing everything.

 

Seeking balance means that one day we’ll achieve it and be perfect. Motherhood made me realize that everything exists together and it’s always moving. -Majka Burhardt

 

3 Things You’ll Learn in This Episode

 

- Do it with joy, but also with honesty

We all have different aspects to our identity. How does motherhood color those things and how we show up in all our roles?

 

- Take yourself on an adventure 

How did Majka choose what life, motherhood and entrepreneurship looked like for her without following convention?

 

- It’s okay if our kids aren’t insanely passionate about anything 

There’s a lot of pressure around the idea of having a passion. Does that do a disservice to our children?

 

Guest Bio

 

Majka Burhardt is a professional climber, conservation entrepreneur, author, and filmmaker. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Legado and the author of Vertical Ethiopia: Climbing Toward Possibility in the Horn of Africa, which was short-listed for the Banff Book Award, as well as her latest book, More: Life on the Edge of Adventure and Motherhood, a Next Big Idea Club must-read.

More: Life on the Edge of Adventure and Motherhood is an intense and emotional epistolary memoir by one of the world's top ice climbers, born at the confluence of motherhood, adventure, career, and marriage. As leading professional climbers and mountain guides, Majka Burhardt and her husband led globe-trotting, adventure-seeking lives. When she learns that she’s pregnant—with twins—Burhardt at first tries to balance her pursuit of extreme risk with her new reality of maternal responsibility. However, she is ultimately forced to face the avalanche of emotions unleashed by the biggest disruption she’s ever confronted—in the mountains or otherwise. Based on the letters and journals Burhardt diligently kept over the course of her pregnancy and the first five years of her children’s lives, More takes the reader on an around-the-world journey as Burhardt explores the transformative, identity-shifting experience of motherhood and its irreversible impact on career, identity, marriage, and self.

For more information follow @majkaburhardt on Instagram and buy the book here.