Great Expectations: Hard to Live up to and a Recipe for Paralysis

"I have no responsibility to live up to what others expect of me. That’s their mistake, not my failing." - Richard Feynman

I spoke at a suicide prevention/postvention conference this week and met a talented young woman with a great deal of potential. We got to speak over lunch and she revealed that despite the great work she was doing as a counselor, there were parts of her life and career that she couldn’t crack because her parents didn't approve. 

She wanted to move forward with some pretty incredible ideas but the threat of her parents' disapproval was causing (metaphorical) paralysis and misery. 

This idea that we have to do what is expected rather than what we believe to be right is a recipe for disaster. We stay in relationships for far too long, veer down a career path we should never have been on, and give people power to lord over us.  

Do it for you, even when it’s scary, even when the safety net of other people's approval vanishes. 

Life is too damn short to make yourself so busy conforming to standards and pleasing other people, that you forget to pay attention to your own needs. 

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