It took me a long
time to realize that you can do everything right and still end up unhappy. You
can say all of the right things, do exactly as you are told, follow in the
footsteps of all the people who swore by their success and their strategy
surrounding it, and you can still end up displaced – because you didn’t ever
choose to simply listen to yourself. The best thing I ever did for myself was
simply listen to what I actually wanted. I drowned out the guidelines, the
advice, the “shoulds”. And I messed up! I made mistakes that
I’ll never forget. I hurt people I loved, and I got hurt. See, self discovery
isn’t this comfortable, miraculous thing. It can get ugly, it can get
confusing. It’s gritty, it’s hard. It’s difficult to confront yourself sometimes,
it’s difficult to be the person who does things differently, who doesn’t
settle. But it’s the greatest gift you will ever give yourself.
It’ll push you towards figuring out what your own personal version of happiness
looks like;
And when you grow on your
own terms, when you figure out what actually matters to you, and when you carve
out your own path, you live on your own terms. You love yourself on your own
terms. You become the person you’ve always wanted to be, rather than the person
you were always told to be, and that’s beautiful. Because when it comes down to
it – life is about making yourself proud on your own terms. It’s about finding
yourself within. It’s about finding a happiness that works for
you.
