What Kept Me From Being Happy

Things that kept me from achieving happiness:
- Pleasing others
- Scared of what other people think
- Scared to go after my goals
- Feeling it was too late for me to achieve the life I wanted


It has been extremely hard to change my mindset and putting myself, my goals in life, and my well being first. Pleasing others and making sure everyone around me is happy tends to take away from making myself happy. There is nothing wrong with caring about your friends and family but taking care of yourself first should always be your first priority. If you were the best possible version of yourself, think of how much more you could help others! Loving yourself and being happy in your own skin and with your own life will ultimately allow you to project that onto other people.

As someone with anxiety, caring about what other people think of me has consumed my life. It has pushed me into paths of life that I wasn't sure I was supposed to be on. It has made me question what type of person I am to my core. Unfortunately it has made me second guess my worthiness as a person, student, athlete, friend, girlfriend and daughter. Caring about what other people think has been the death of me. It held me back from trying things and pursuing goals I had for myself. It is like Rachel Hollis says (if you don't know her I suggest you look her up), you do not have a fear of failure, you have a fear of failing in front of other people and what they will think about you. But the bottom line is who the hell cares. It has taken me a long time to start a blog out of people's opinions but it has been one of the most fulfilling aspects of my life.

Learning to be confident in myself and the choices I make in life has been a struggle for as long as I can remember. Looking in the mirror and not being completely confident in myself physically and mentally has caused a lot of negativity in my life. With lots of practice and slowly doing things I love versus those that I feel I must be doing, I have slowly gotten closer and closer to becoming confident in myself. A lot of my happiness stems from confidence in myself.

I am slowly learning to take the opportunities life gives me. Instead of wondering what is important to other people, I need to start looking inside myself for what I think is important. I have always had a dream of becoming a strong voice as a mental health and wellness advocate. But with that I have struggled with the judgements of others which has held me back in chasing my goals in life. I gave begun to take steps forward in the right direction by choosing myself and what I want over others opinions of me and what I am doing.

Too long have I allowed others opinions of me stop me from chasing my dreams and being happy. I am making it a priority to put myself out there and take chances and risks. I hope whoever is reading this can look at themselves and think about whether they are living their best life or not. And I hope you can start choosing your happiness over others opinions.

Until next time,
Xo,
Dani