I love this quote.
There are many people I look up to, people who inspire me, and at different times in my life people I have envied and wished I could be more like them. Over time I have learnt that envy can be a healthy feeling as it can guide me to better understand my deepest desires, my deepest longings. And, everyone else is taken. I am uniquely me.
These days, having been on a transformative journey to know myself and slowly learn to care for myself, I am grateful that I like who I am. That I no longer need to be the chameleon that I use to be, trying to please others, trying to be whoever you wanted me to be.
I am grateful I am learning to be myself, whether at work, at home, in all my relationships. At times it has me feeling deeply vulnerable – ‘what if they don’t like the authentic me?’
And I now realise that the only person that needs to like me is me. It is not my job to convince someone else to like me or love me. It is my job to like me and love me. Sometimes the old guilt, that ‘after-burn’ can still come up but now I can hold myself through it. Now I have the inner strength, the inner worth to stay true to myself.
At least most of the time and if I get it wrong, if I abandon myself for someone else’s approval, I can apologise to myself, I can forgive myself and I can try again.
With great warmth
Jo
