c. 2018 Cheryl Kelly
All rights reserved
(12-18)
Okay, so life has
it’s way of throwing some curve balls. If you’re lucky, your
dodging abilities are on point, but most of us, who hated dodge ball
in elementary school, never quite grasped those skills and have ended
up taking those hits to the face time and time again. There does
come a point, however, in one’s life when you turn that corner and
pick up the ball and throw it right back. It’s a skill that I
believe does come with age and with wisdom, for lack of a better way
to put it. That point you reach in your life where you put your
purse down and wail away.
Like everything,
this isn’t the case for everyone, as everyone does handle life and
the challenges it dishes out differently, but I do think that as we
get older, our perspective changes. It is no longer acceptable to be
unhappy, or to waste time in an unhappy situation. It is no longer
okay to put yourself last always, to settle for less than you
deserve. Now I realize that this sounds a bit selfish, and perhaps
that’s true. But who said that being selfish has to always have a
negative connotation to it? What is so wrong with looking out for
yourself?
Now I’m not saying
to swing the pendulum clear in other direction, where you mistreat
others for your own personal gain. I’m talking about making time
for yourself, making yourself a priority, and allowing yourself to
demand more; not only more from yourself, but also more from others
who you let into your life. Is that so wrong? Is it wrong to have
those expectations? Are we just setting ourselves up for more
failure and hits to the face?
I don’t think
so...I like to think that the more we demand from ourselves and those
we love and care about, the more we grow and the closer we get to
real happiness. If we have no expectations of ourselves or others,
than the same old behaviors and actions that at times were not
working, just continue to be acceptable...and we end up stuck in a
rut, losing precious time. And if life has taught us anything as
humans over and over again, it’s that the time you think you have,
does not exist. Anything can happen at any moment that changes your
life in an instant.
The next challenge
is to decide how to begin...how to begin looking at things
differently, how to begin to put steps in place to change the way you
handle yourself and others, and to just stop being okay with less
than you deserve. It’s important to be honest with yourself enough
to know when you’re missing something and are unhappy with someone
or something in your life. And then the challenge is to communicate
to those around you letting them know what you need, how you feel and
what you want. Lastly, you need to be prepared to let go, accept
change, and know that change is difficult and takes time to adjust.
It’s a daunting
task to evaluate your life, and even more intimidating to know that
there are things that need to change if you’re going to grow. As
you get older, I believe that task does get easier if for no other
reason than you have learned over the years after taking those hits
over and over; that life is short, and even shorter to spend it
unhappy and unfulfilled. It becomes time to stop settling for
anything that does not bring a positive into your life; time to move
yourself away from people who don’t meet you half way and put forth
the same effort that you, yourself give.
So, put your purse
down Sally and throw some punches back!
