Validation is overrated.
If you’re waiting for a nod from the Powers-That-Be to do something you are secretly dying to do, you are wasting your time . . . literally. The Powers-That-Be – you know, “those people” from whom you are waiting to receive permission? They really don’t care about you and what you do or don’t do. At least not nearly as much as you think they do.
For most of us, including this Southern female, we have bought (because we’ve been taught!) that we were supposed to please others. Pleasing bosses and others in real or imagined authority was expected, if not demanded, of us.
There is order in conformity.
There is safety in submission.
And disappointment and regret fill the last days of a life unlived.
I recently had lunch with a couple of my male contemporaries who have both already settled into “end of the road” mode. As I passionately spoke of some of my upcoming ventures and plans, these two pointedly asked me, “When are you going to slow down?” There was even the suggestion that there was something dysfunctional in my make up that I would be making grand plans “at my age”!
I find joy in creating. Creating and building are my hobbies. Why would I ever want to “slow down” and stop doing the things I love to do? Other people’s expectations of what you should be doing and how you should live your life are just that — other people’s expectations. They own them. They belong to them — not you.
Don’t let other people’s expectations burden you. Don’t carry other people’s expectations on your back. Let them carry their own load. You stay light-footed and light-hearted. Let your heart lead and your path will be a happy one.
If you’re waiting for “permission” from someone outside yourself — or from that wee voice inside your own head — to do something you’re dying to do . . . Don’t die before you do it!