This year has been long… I feel all too whacked. Some people tend to have this idea that they know me more than I know myself, so they think they have the right to define for me what is appropriate.

Yet the more I adopt their “stuff” to earn my recompense, the more I get shortchanged. And I am wondering; how am I supposed to make something out of my life?!!!

Anyway I have had time to reflect… and I am compelled to think that, maybe, life is some sort of roller-coaster and I just didn’t want to sink it down. In any case expediency is a bitch; that’s why I practically don’t own my life. Now I have my mind made up: I need to change a few things in 2017…

I realized I was holding on to a lot of deadweight; in my business; in my private life, in relationships; and physically… I was trying to make my dreams come true in a conservative way, only to cover up my slip-ups as a person; cover up my disappointments, cover up the open wounds of past regrets… it made me very sad and disgruntled instead.

In all of my pursuing I was merely trying to make things happen, in order to avoid the hypercritical feeling that my life is what I make of it. As long as I focused on what I didn’t have, I would never be able to enjoy my current “real” life.

There’s a beautiful lesson in the journey. Over the past few months, a shift has occurred, and instead of looking outside and trying to make things happen, I think I should be over it! I’m done trying to be someone I’m not. Instead, I’m embracing myself as I am in this moment.

Here are 10 things I am done with, and maybe you should be, too:

• I’m done with thinking that I love being normal as everybody defines normal even when it is really bad for me – to be an extrovert when I am actually a reticent person.

• I’m done with hiding who I am because I’m afraid I won’t fit in.

• I’m done with second-guessing myself and pretending I care about things I don’t.

• I’m done with feeling sorry for friends who lead a life that I think is irresponsible; instead, I will let them be lest they drag me into some ditch with them.

• I’m done with thinking I’m not where I should be. I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.

• I’m done with feeling inadequate. I have talent that’s perfect for me to thrive in any part of this world.

• I’m done with trying to prove anything to anyone. The only thing that matters is my relationship with myself. Approval starts with me.

• I’m done with thinking I need to be perfect to be successful. People will choose real over perfect any day of the week.

• I’m done with thinking I’ll be happy when I reach that next goal. My life is now. I embrace it fully.

• I’m done with overthinking everything. Sometimes it just is what it is.

Lessons from Psychologist and Writer, Shannan Kaiser.