Know Who You Are
Well, hello there family! I am back, yet again, for another week of inspiration and motivation. I hope that you all have been grabbing whatever inspiration you can from wherever you can. It is so important to link yourself with positivity and be motivated into taking the next step to being your best self.
For the last couple of weeks, I have been running into people who have recently “found themselves”. I mean, they weren’t necessarily lost, but mentally they had conditioned themselves to be a certain way because there was a level of expectations from other people that they had to live up to. I was told that they only discovered a few years ago that they did not have to live up to the expectations of other people. They actively chose to be their unique selves. It was only after living most of their lives being servants to others, did they finally realize that they forgot one important person… themselves. Let’s get into it.
I am always amazed when I talk to “seasoned” folks about their lives. Most of them give me the same general story. They wished they would have done this. Or they wished they would have said that. It is very rare that I run across people who say, “I have lived a full and amazing life”. I ask the same question when I run across people who have these shoulda, woulda, and coulda’s; “what stopped you?” For the most part, the answer is the same; “the expectations of others”. Either people expected them to be available or expected them to act a certain way. The expectations of others can be crippling. I mean, someone can literally lose themselves while they are trying to live up to the expectations of other people. This is why it’s so important to know who you are, whose you are, and what you want out of life. We can only continue to give people so much of ourselves before we end up not having enough for ourselves.
People love to “box place” others, while others allow themselves to be put inside of a box. Just because you help a few people today, doesn’t mean that you can’t say no when you are asked to help again tomorrow. Saying no to them, and yes to you doesn’t mean you are a bad person. It means you have balance and know when to focus on your needs as opposed to the needs of others. I don’t believe for a second that God wants you to pour all your energy into living for other people all the while never living for yourself. If he says that we can have life and have it more abundantly, how are we to do that when we have given our life to other people? I love the fact that my pastor/hubs like to travel and vacation. Do you know the number of folks, Christian folks, that are scared to live because of the expectations of other people? Traveling doesn’t make me less of a child of God. Who said we couldn’t go on a trip or to a movie? Who put all these rules and regulations in place? Who said I have to always say yes when someone needs me? Who told that lie?
I am here today to tell you to know who you are! Know when to say no, know when to live for yourself, and know how to tear a box that has been built around you down. Don’t let people throw their expectations, whatever they may be, on you. Do not allow them to cripple you, because, in the end, you will only be hurting yourself. I don’t know about you, but I refuse to get to the end of my life and sang the “shoulda, woulda, and coulda” blues.
Let’s have a discussion in the comments below….
