“It’s your life—but only if you make it so.” –Eleanor Roosevelt
I think it’s kind of funny that we are born and don’t really have a say in the matter. We don’t get to choose our parents or siblings, place of birth or even time period. All of us here today didn’t get to choose if we wanted to live during this era of history or during the time of dinosaurs or 100 years in the future. We just come into being. We are given a life.
It can be so easy to take this for granted and wait to be given the life that we want. When I was in my teens it was hard for me to imagine that I could create the life that I wanted. So much of my life was pre-scripted—where I would go to school, when I would graduate, what I would study—and I was good at following someone else’s script. It wasn’t really until my 30’s that I began to realize that I had some control over the story of my life. I could choose the standards by which I live. My own values can be the sole arbitrator of what is good and bad for me.
Ever so slowly, I began to change the things that weren’t working or didn’t fit. It was scary at times and exhilarating at others. I still don’t have it perfectly figured out but I’m getting better at following Eleanor’s suggestion and making my life my own.
- What is the script of your life that someone else gave to you?
- In what ways are you working to make your life your own?
- Who supports you in figuring this out?