So one of my athletes is now entering a phase where she realized that she has not taken care of her own happiness and instead has lived to please others, esp. family and society. This must be a common pitfall among certain personalities that are natural “givers” and nurturers.

It is interesting thinking about how to rebuild a happy life. I have had to go through this as well. On the way home from Burning Man I made a list of all the things I remembered liking or enjoying doing in my life. I think there were close to 100 items on the list when I stopped. My athlete did the same thing (not on my suggestion!).

There is considerable guilt in pursuing your own pleasure if you have denied yourself for a long time. I denied myself things I liked for two reasons: I shouldn’t be having fun until I was financially successful, and I shouldn’t do anything that might make my boyfriend upset (the one thing I did against his wishes, getting a cat, ended up being one of my best decisions! UPDATE: Also, traveling to Pakistan was against his wishes as well, another great decision!). These were patterns/boundaries I had set up as rules in my games, to no good end!

By dropping my two biggest paradigms/lies that were making me miserable, I’ve entered a whole new year of freedom to be as happy as I design my life to be. Now it’s time to be really creative. “Create YOU.”