Have you ever wondered how some people make decision making look so easy?
The person in the photo is toddler me. This person (me) was imaginative, creative, playful, sensitive and very loving.
In the effort to prepare me for life, I was convinced by my father and my teachers that creativity wouldn’t get me very far in life.
At the age of 8, I became a latchkey kid in New York City and had to take care my kid brother, get my homework done, semi-prep dinner while my parents worked.
Because my circumstances dictated that I be responsible not only for myself but another, there was little time for play.
I was a serious kid. I had to make decisions on my own and hope I was doing the best thing for me and my brother.
If some did something I didn’t want to do, I was fine with going off by myself.
After a certain point, I saw no benefit in talking anything into the ground. I simply ignored the person and did my own thing.
If I were born a boy, I would have been called strong-willed or confident, but since I was not, I was labeled stubborn.
Life was simpler as a kid than as an adult. And I don’t know about you, but sometimes I have to put out a search warrant to find that little girl inside me in order to remember my knowing.
When I find her, she is always chilling in the cut, solid in who she is. So I offer to you, reflect on a time in your life when you showed up for yourself.
Tap into that genius of you and KNOW no matter what it looks like now, that (little person) still exists in you.
Here a few things to keep you on track with your decision making:
1. Pretend to be that earlier person is standing in front of you and ask her what would she do or say.
2. State your truth withOUT explanation (as long as it isn’t doing any harm to anyone including yourself), because no amount of words are going to get them to ‘get it’. People have their own personal agenda and there is no need to take it personally, so do whatever makes you happiest, peaceful, fill in the blank.
3. Yes, withOUT explanation or guilt: it is done, allow it to remain done. Stay present and feel good about your decision. I also offer you to turn away, turn off from people, places and things that you don’t make you feel good. Including and sometimes especially, the machine called ‘social media’.
Life is supposed to be fun. It is most fun when it is simple.
