I have to make everyone happy.
People will like me better if I lose weight.
I’m too old. No one needs me anymore.
I need to be perfect.
I am not good enough.
LIES
They are gonna keep coming. Lies don’t stop just because we want them to. Or even when we recognize them as lies. Maybe over time we can re-train our brain and our thoughts… but there is still a really good chance that the lie will come back and try again. And if it doesn’t, a new one will come.
There isn’t something wrong with you when you get bombarded with these lies. These lies don’t come to the weak and the feeble – or those with character flaws… that’s a lie itself.
These lies come from fears in our heart. It’s a normal, human experience to have.
The problem is not hearing these lies, lie to us.
The problem is not knowing how to respond.
The answer is not tuning them out or working to make them go away, the answer is to be ready for them and know how to reply.
We don’t ignore these lies. We talk back.
That’s right. Sometimes we aren’t to be polite and passive. Sometimes we need to talk back. Be mouthy. Get assertive and maybe even a bit aggressive.
This is your mind you are fighting for.
This is your heart you are fighting for.
This is your body you are standing up for and protecting.
These are your hopes, dreams, opportunities, chances, and possibilities you are fighting to protect and nourish.
No lie gets to come in here and bully your hope into fading out.
NO.
Those were your dreams when you work up and no lie can take them from you.
I don’t care what it has to say, and I don’t care how it tries to say it.
We won’t be seduced by a whisper. We won’t be intimidated by a shout.
I've got no time to entertain a lie.
Listen, listen, listen…
The definition of a lie is this… an untrue statement intended to deceive.
You are too smart to be deceived. You’ve been through too much, learned too many lessons, and experienced too much life for anything to think it can sneak up on you and deceive you.
That’s not gonna happen. Not anymore.
As soon as a lie is exposed as a lie, it loses power.
As soon as a lie is recognized as a deceiver, it loses power.
You ain’t been through all you been through for some lie to be able to sneak up on you and deceive you.
No sir. No ma’am.
But if this is normal, if this is gonna keep happening…
Well then, I guess we better know how to reply.
What were some of those lies? I have to make everyone happy?
You don’t have to make anyone happy. No one walks this earth with the purpose of making another human happy. You need to know what makes you happy and do that. What do you love? Seek that. Feel that. Do that. You being happy will radiate and drop like rain on others. They will feel your good vibes beaming from you. It might even affect their feelings. They might even feel happy! But you, you aren’t here to make sure others are happy. You have a purpose and a plan. You have a journey and path. You have goals, dreams, opportunities, and desires. Follow those. Make you happy.
People will like me better if I lose weight.
Who will? People will like you better if you lose weight? What people? Not the people who matter? Not the people who have your back and are rooting you on. Those people aren’t concerned with petty things like weight. The only people concerned with that are those too shallow to follow you out into the ocean of purpose you possess. They’ll drown in your gifts, talents, and goodness before they reach you. You don’t lose weight for anyone. You lose disrespectful, unsupportive people, who had no place trying to weigh you with their scales of worth. You my dear, don’t not earn people liking you. You look around and decide if there is anyone you like. And that’s who gets your focus.
I’m too old. No one needs me anymore.
Uh, I do. Over here. Let me tell you the value in your wisdom cannot be measured, replicated, replaced, or found in a young person who hasn’t lived what you’ve lived, seen what you’ve seen, heard what you’ve heard, and felt what you’ve felt.
Old? Nah, that’s called experience. That’s what I need. That’s what I seek. That’s what I look to and watch for and hold as hope, motivation, and goals.
You might not be used in the same ways as you were, but you are valued in what you have to offer now. Something that youth can’t offer because they know not of the value of age.
You are needed. You are wanted. You are loved. I need you. Not despite your age, but specifically because of it and the wisdom it offers me.
I need to be perfect.
You are. You are perfectly imperfect with all your perfect imperfections… and there is none like you. You were created for a time and a place and a space that is only for you, and all of you is needed to fill that void. What is perfect anyways? A flaw to you is a quirk to me and a failure to me is an opportunity to you. There is no measuring perfect. There is only opinion. And yours matters. Don’t need to be perfect. Need to be you. All of you. Nothing more and nothing less. That’s perfect.
I am not good enough.
Oh, but you are. You are good enough, just the way you are. You were born good enough and you’ll leave this world someday still good enough. And nothing in between can change that.
You are more than enough. And you are worthy of believing this.
You don’t earn being enough. You just are.
You don’t prove you are enough. You just are.
You can’t lose being enough either. You just always will be.
Anything less is a LIE.
And we don’t shy back from LIES.
We do hear them.
We recognize them.
We know what they said.
We also know how to respond. We talk back.
We speak TRUTH.
Truth will always kill the LIES.