Friday, October 4, 2013

Day 4

Changing Expectations

One theme that's been on my mind lately is the idea of being true to yourself, no matter what others think. I'm the kind of person that likes everyone to be happy and like me. I've been pleased with the response I've gotten from many people I work with as they've discovered I'll be leaving them. People for the most part have been very sweet and tell me they'll miss me.

It's a great thing to hear. But truth be told, I don't care as much about these opinions and acclamations as I used to. Because the older I get, the more one truth hits home:

There will always be someone out there that won't like you.

It doesn't matter if you're the sweetest person in the world--someone will think you're too sweet, or being fake. It doesn't matter what you do, because you can't please everybody.

And in the attempt to please everyone, sometimes you can become a watered-down version of yourself.

In addition to the 31 Days' writing challenge, the new challenge I'm giving myself is to be authentic, even if it makes someone upset and even if it might change their view of me. Because, I often shy away from fully expressing myself and my opinions out of fear.

I challenge you to do the same--to be authentic.

Say what you think.

Allow yourself to be weird or be quirky.

If people are going to judge you, when your being true to yourself, are they really the kind of people you want to be around anyway?

1 comment:

  1. We were just talking about this in my church life group tonight! I really believe the older we get, the less we worry about other people's opinions. We get more confident and comfortable in our own skin. You are so right~ "there will always be someone out there that won't like you"... We might as well be real!

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