Random Rants: You Yourself Are It

I recently just got a book and it's called 1000 Little Things Happy Successful People Do Differently and I have been reading this book for the last month and it's been giving me a lot of insight on a lot of important things in life. This one tough truth got to me though and stuck to me for quite a while. Let me share it with you: One of the greatest freedom is truly not caring what anyone else thinks of you.

While I don't want to admit it, I totally seek external validation (like most of us, right?) and often feel like I don't have enough - or even worse, that I'm not enough. It's a tough world. I get it. We are striving to better ourselves in all aspects of our lives like family, relationships, our jobs and careers and everything just gets stressful and altogether overwhelming that sometimes we just want to step back and pause for a while. Gather our thoughts and think- Am I not doing this right? Am I not good enough to make this work? I do. I ask myself these questions a lot. And because of this, I tend to - like the rest of us - seek out validation from other people. I tend to rely and care very much about what others think of me. And to be honest, the older I get, the more I realized that these things aren't at all that important in life-it's about spending time with those you love, doing the things that make you happy and a better person and realizing that YOU are enough.

As long as you are worried about what others think of you, you are owned by them. Only when you require no approval from outside yourself can you own yourself. And you can totally be free and happy about yourself therefore, you are allowing yourself to discover your strengths as much as your weaknesses and use them to your advantage. Turns out, when you face our fears and put yourself out there, things aren't quite as bad as you make them out to be. When it comes down to it, it's not about the shiny things that distract you - it's about being with the people you love and loving yourself first and foremost.

Now that I am older, I came to realize slowly that validating yourself through the eyes of other people is not the way to a happy life. That you can make a happy and contented life of your own by accepting who you are and what you are. By being passionate of the things you love and the things that drive your soul. We are all capable of great things if we let ourselves be free from being conscious about what others might think of us. The people who truly love and appreciate you will see you as you are and accept you for who you are. And everything will fall in its place.

Okay, Okay. END RANT. We made it to the weekend eh?! It's still cold here in Wisconsin and everybody is just dreaming of the warmer weather where the flowers are going to start to bloom and the birds are going to be chirping their way to your feeders. The thought of all that is already making me excited and I am already preparing my house for spring cleaning and revamping my closet for spring appropriate wardrobe!

XOXO,

Karen