Do not live for the expectations of the people around you. Live for yourself, for your dreams, for your happiness.

Do not live for the expectations of the people around you. Live for yourself, for your dreams, for your happiness.
Are you following your dream?
Is it coming at a penalty (of sorts) in life?
Working to keep up with everyone else’s expectations can be a path paved with disappointments and compromises of many forms. It is a lifestyle option that some make, and most shy away from. It has been referred to as “marching to the beat of a different drummer.”
It is a journey that comes with a lot of disparate emotions that many will timidly shy away from.
The loneliness of being on a path that only you can see is palpable. There are times when it is fraught with doubt, despair, fear, trepidation, insecurity, worry, and sometimes… nausea.
Why do it at all?
Because it is there.
(I have yet to find a better answer than this one) It is the stock answer that climbers use to explain why they would climb Everest. You could not pay me to climb Everest, even if there were a trillion dollars at the top and a complete assurance of global peace and personal immortality, I would never try it. Others might feel similarly about different paths that each of us opt to take.
That is what makes the journey so special. Presumably because so many others would not attempt it.
If your heart cries for you to give something everything you’ve got, regardless of risk, consequences, circumstances or the scrutiny of others, then you simply have to do it. You have to let others live their own lives and you must live yours (to the fullest capacity possible!)
I do not want to arrive at the end of the journey in a calm and peaceful state. I want to arrive with my hair disheveled, my clothing partly torn, my eyes ablaze and an ear to ear grin, saying to myself, “let’s do it all over again!!!” I cannot imagine any other way to envision life and the opportunity it provides.
Your choice to live like this will draw attention and garner comments, some good and others, not so much. If I have learned anything in my 43 years of running The Illusion Factory, it is that you are never, ever going to please everyone. Not even close. So you had better be working on pleasing yourself, because you are the consistent variable in your life.
This life choice is not for the weak of heart. It can (and will) take you right up to the edge. It will drag you down to the lowest of lows and catapult you to the highest of highs. There are most certainly much safer, and saner choices to make in life.
The choice is yours.
Happy Friday!
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