Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Dreams Come True/Success List

I've had a huge amount of trouble with this list -- mostly because if an achievement was someone else's goal for me, I don't feel it belongs on this list.  Since I'm someone with a big people pleasing problem, that makes a HUGE dent in the potential list.

Anyway,  here is what I have so far:
  • I survived my childhood.
  • I kept the real me alive by hiding her away until I could create a safe environment for her to begin to emerge.
  • Even though I was steamrolled into going to college, I did at least have the courage to major in literature and the self-knowledge to stay out of pre-med, like my mom was pushing hard for.
  • I married the man my mother warned me about (still happily married almost 20 years later AND she finally admitted that I did the right thing)
  • I got that crazy spiky haircut in jr high and didn't let all the shocked expressions and comments stop me from gelling it into a porcupine every day.
  • I got the wrinkled, asymmetrical jacket and kept wearing it despite all the offers to teach me how to iron.
  • I am following my instincts and working toward healing my thyroid naturally rather than agreeing to treatment that feels wrong to me.
  • Step One -- I'm past the physical addiction stage of kicking my Mountain Dew habit ( 2-3 20oz bottles a day).  And I've stopped drinking orange soda.  (both contain brominated vegetable oil)
  • I've built a good basic library of herb books.
  • Attempted a container garden this past spring.
  • Had great luck growing garlic at mom's house.
  • Created Penelope (a piece of art -- I'll post her picture.  I'll have to take one first.  The only one I have is on my phone.)

  • Had several of my own photos printed, framed them, and hung them in the living room.
  • Got out of a job that was destructive for me.
  • Got out of a spiritual community that was destructive for me.
  • Stopped letting social norms dictate my decorating (gargoyles.  not just for halloween anymore. also using a black halloween tree as a "happy everything" tree.  when i put up christmas decorations, i took off some --not all-- of the halloween ornaments and added some silver christmas tree balls along with the skeletons.  now the skeletons have been joined by hearts for valentine's day.  i hope to find shamrocks for st. patrick's day.)
Half of these have been in the past year.

6 comments:

  1. very powerful!!!
    and i want to honour you for looking at what you did for you vs what you did to please others.

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  2. The asymmetrical jacket made me laugh out loud.

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  3. Andrea -- thanks for the encouragement. I'm sure the list of things I've done for me will be much longer by the end of the year.

    Darla -- LOL! I still have that jacket! (and yes, I still wear it occasionally, so don't hound me to declutter it. I should wear it this weekend!)

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  4. I loved that you gelled your hair "into a porcupine everyday"- that's hilarious! Sounds like you've always stayed true to yourself - that's key!!

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  5. I really wish I had pictures of my porcupine hair. Sadly, since my parents hated it, none were taken.

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  6. I think my favorite things about your successes so far is your marriage, your elimination of some toxicities in your life and your focus on being the person that you really are. There are so many people in this world who are unable to accomplish any of those in their lifetime.

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