Freedom: responsibility or joy?

 What is your default mindset?   

    I was not brave enough to take responsibility for my life even in my late twenties – it’s just the truth I have to face. I’ve got it in me to embellish everything around and wear rose-tinted glasses at any time, but I think, in order to be a successful writer, I have to face some facts about my situation and be more observant of others.          Wearing eyesight-correcting lenses, paying attention to my posture are also not entirely useless activities. All I need is a bit of conscious effort and my experiences would change their flavor.  I mean, I have to make an effort to expel Russian traditional expectations for a proper woman’ senses such as self-sacrifice, suffering and victimhood from my system completely. They, probably, still influence me in no small degree. I had seen it in my mother, and since then I have been trying to get rid of those feelings. I understood how harmful conformity was to intelligence and joy, how all the effort to please others was in vain anyway. Most of the people I know always think themselves better than others and some of them envy success even of their nearest kin.

     

     Love and friendship must be beneficial and bring joy instead of being harmful or abusive.  By the way, the same applies to getting knowledge; it’s definitely a good idea to learn from inspiring and creative people one really likes and understand. Life is indeed short and there is a lot to enjoy in mine, I just have to brave independence, firstly of mind, and let’s see what positive changes it will bring. 

Have you ever felt the pressure to be like other people around you? What do you do about it?