Living Life By Your Own Rules -- Don't Listen to the Peanut Gallery!

I've been working with clients for years in several different contexts and one of the most common issues I find time and again is how people craft their lives around the needs, wants, and expectations of other people.

I used to be the exact example of this. To be fair, I think we really learn this early on in our lives. When we're little kids, we are taught to please our parents by being quiet and tidy. When we get to school, this gets further ingrained in us from our teachers. I think back on times in school when I had to really, really use the restroom but to do so you'd have to ask permission (!), get a hall slip written up (!!) and you'd have only a certain amount of time to go. If I could go back to that time in my life, knowing what I know now, I just would have stood and quietly walked out of the room without permission. Students who didn't follow the prescribed rules were designated as "problem" or "difficult" children. They were the rule breakers. Looking back on it now, they were the free spirits.

When we let our behaviors, actions, goals, dreams, and wishes be hemmed in -- or worse, trampled on -- by authority figures, we are not giving ourselves the opportunity of being our own truly authentic selves. Every single person on this planet is a creative soul capable of lighting up the world in so many beautiful ways. Yes, you too.

When we see children playing and having fun, being silly and loose and free, we say that they're being age appropriate. However, we're taught that part of becoming an adult is to lose that aspect of ourselves. To be fun, silly, loose and free in adulthood is looked down upon by most. We see these folks as the outsiders. They're the hippies, the artists, the provacateurs, People who are unwilling to have their spirits constrained are seen as being "out of the box" and "unorthodox" -- but our spirits also yearn to be just as free.

I'm here to remind you that you can always start the process of making the deliberate decision to stop being hemmed in. You have the ability right now, in this moment, to stop taking other people's opinions and rules to heart. When I'm helping clients remove their subconscious blocks, a lot of what I'm helping them release are these constrictions that have been put upon them. It wasn't always meant badly, of course. Parents sometimes become too strict when they're concerned for their child's safety. Schools becomes disciplinarians because they need kids to conform in order to achieve their goal of educating a future workforce. Workplaces have best practices and guidelines to follow because they want to ensure that work is being done appropriately.

I'm sure we've all heard of businesses that make employees conform to a ridiculous degree. It's a shame because through it, they're losing the human touch. Customers like to have real human experiences with real humans. In my opinion, the most successful businesses in the future will be the ones who provide the most freedom to their employees. Look at what happened during the COVID-19 pandemic: Many workers started being able to work from home, freeing up a lot of time and space for freedom, creativity, and sleep. Even though productivity remained quite high, businesses are pushing to get workers back into cubicles which will only stifle creativity. It's all about control. Controlling your time and controlling your creative spirit to meet their goals.

I'd like for you to remind yourself every day that you are a creative individual. Even if you don't have a hobby or artistic outlet in particular, you have the sparks of creativity and freedom within you. You can start making that feeling more real by actively releasing yourself from what other people think. Of course, you still have to go to work and conform to some degree, but you can choose to not care what your boss thinks. If you have a domineering or opinionated parent, you can choose not to take in their criticisms. You are entitled to do with your life what you want to do with it. Your spirit is intended to be as free as a bird. The time to make these changes is now.

Whenever I've been placed in a box, whether it be a job or school, I feel constrained. You can try your best to mould yourself into the person management wants you to be, but it will never feel quite right. For me, I knew that my path was to be self-employed so that I can work precisely how I want to work. Prior to this, I worked for the government for a decade in a job that had lifetime job security and a pension -- and even then it wasn't worth it. To be constained with golden handcuffs is still to be constrained.

If you want to liberate yourself: Start today. It takes time and it takes work to see all of our blind spots. A lot of this is conditioning and we need to de-condition ourselves, which is not the easiest thing in the world to do. Learning to not listen to Mom can take a lifetime for many of us. Sometimes our parents' opinions stick with us long after they've passed on!

If you feel that you'd like assistance with this, feel free to book a discovery call with me. It's free and we can talk more about what you're looking to accomplish. Through hypnotherapy, we can often get to the root of an issue or block and work on releasing it very, very quickly and then help install some new thoughts and behaviors that will be helpful and healthy. I want you all to find your freedom in any way that you can. Hypnosis is simply a "shortcut" to understanding the problem and replacing it with something better and more useful.

Let's rediscover ourselves and let the peanut gallery go. Those opinions and ideas served a purpose at one time, but no longer. The world we're moving into is one where the creative free-thinkers will be the ones who succeed in an ever-changing, fast-moving world. Not only will they be the ones who succeed, but they'll be the ones helping to create the new world we're entering into.