"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."
Sometimes we get so caught up in trying to live for others we forget to live for us. But the truth of the matter is that becoming the person you were meant to be begins with honoring the person you are right now. It begins with being true to you. It begins in this perfect moment.
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"LOVE" devoid of self-gratification, is in essence, the will, to the greatest good...of another.
I've been thinking that exact same thing these past few days. I'm 42 and staying with my Mom for a few weeks while I await moving into my new place in a new city. And even through my challenges I find that the more I am myself (the good, kind, loving self) that I feel good about, the less I try and please and prove anything to anyone.
I find it strange to share a home, and am grateful that I now feel good enough to be me. And not so afraid of what others think of me. I grew up thinking that all the pain and anger in my family's dysfunction was my fault. I am grateful to learn in my 40's that none of it is me. Thanks for reminding me of that. Thank God for meetings. Because I get to be reminded as many times as I attend.
Have a good one/ Jo-Anne
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I granted myself the gift of sobriety and found my spirit.
Thanks for this post, Phil. And I enjoyed the responses!!
I certainly wasn't aware that I was living by others' faulty beliefs and 'solutions' until they were already ingrained deep in my psyche. It is a long process finding out who I am and living for me, and sometimes frightening, but every little baby-step toward true freedom is worth it.
Another thing, no matter what happened in my childhood, and some bad things did happen, I know one thing to be true:
The longer I stay sober, my 'chilhood' seems to get a little better in my mind than I originally thought.........
Thanks for a great post. Thanks, too, for all of the responses. They were great to read.
I'm certainly guilty of forgetting to live for myself. Thank you for reminding me that I need to do that. I find it way to easy to be over-taken by events and/or people and trying to do what I think they want me to do. I know that to be truly peaceful I have to be me. I'm working on that one day at a time. Today, I will be true to me.
Take care,
Carol
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Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. ~Dr. Seuss
